Her Soldier
by The Lady Destiny
Summary: Nefertiti has been alive for at least Three thousand and five hundred years. She's been a Pharaoh, a Queen, and even a Goddess. What she has never been, is a mate. Now she will be as she follows her sister in the familiar Twilight story. JasperOC JasperxOC
1. The Past

My name was once Nefertiti. I was called that for a very short period of my long life, nineteen years to be exact. I don't talk about it much, meaning never, but I'm pretty old. I used to have one sibling but she died some time ago. My parents were royalty during the eighteenth dynasty of the Egyptian rule. I was a foreign princess, from where I can't remember. Most of my human memories are a little fogy now.

I was married at age fifteen to the future Pharaoh of Egypt, Amenhotep IV. I don't remember exactly which wife I was to him, maybe the sixteenth, but I remember he loved me. I never loved him, not in the way he did. Amenhotep always saw me as a prize to love and make everyone jealous of. I didn't mind because I'd seen the way that the other women were treated in Egypt. I bore him six children, all of them daughters that I loved with all of my heart. I had a step-son, Tutankhamen as he was later named, who I loved just as much.

I remember my life somewhat clearly. I remember standing beside my Pharaoh as he made me Queen. I memorized everything that he had to do as Pharaoh, if you're around someone that long you do things like that. My husband was sure in the Aten faith and I followed him, but like the rest of the kingdom I was still in the ways of the old faith but in Ancient Egypt you would follow your Pharaoh no matter what he wanted.

That is when I think the resentment started to form. I didn't want to be just a beautiful Queen that everyone saw but did not hear. Sure, my orders were carried out but I always had to watch my back to make sure that no one tried to kill my daughters or even me. Amenhotep didn't care about that. All the bastard cared about was the kingdom and not the family. My hate just kept building and building until I refused to give myself to him. He went into a rage over it and forced himself on me. After that I didn't speak much. I just kind of sat there and went through the motions. Every time that he came I took it like a good little Queen.

And then my daughter pasted away. Meketaten was so dear to me. She had been old enough to understand what was happening to me-sixteen and marrying age. We'd both been so furious with her father that she wouldn't speak to him any more, which he couldn't do anything about unless he planned to make me kill myself. Or that's what I told him and we wouldn't want him to loose his Queen, would we?

Now, it takes 70 days for someone to be mummified and their Ka to be prepared for the after-life. All 70 of those days are the time of mourning. In the time of mourning women are to cover their skin all except their eyes, hands, and feet. That is exactly what I did. It gave me a reason not to allow Amenhotep to force him upon me.

I've told you all of these, not only because you are here to read my story but also because I'm trying to tell someone about my changing. Changing into what you might ask? A vampire to you today but in my time I thought myself, Sekhmet who was the one being that I could remember having sucked the blood of others.

It is said, in the legend, that the humans were trying to kill Ra so he send down Hathor to kill us. Once our blood had touched the goddess of healing and pestilence's lips she became the bloodthirsty demon, Sekhmet. She killed so many that it is said that the blood flooded the lands up to her knees.

For me it wasn't _that _sudden. I'm sure if you pour it all together my killings might have been up to over the sky and to the moon.

On the Twenty-eight day of my morning for my daughter, Meketaten, I rose from my bed to go to my one place of sanctum from anyone else, the Royal Gardens. They were sunken into the earth, and had all of the best trees and grasses, and flowers that could grow in this land. My husband wanted it torn down to make a new place of temple but I had begged him to give me this one thing for myself. He'd agreed on terms I wish not to speak of ever again to anyone, human or vampire.

So as I stepped out in the proper clothes of the mourning I gestured the guards away, who shuffled out of the way with the silence and the proper submission of well learned subordinates. I would later curl my lip in fury at how I acted, like I was better than them. At least I got what I deserved.

While I walked along the Gardens, the pathways covered in the rare grass that ever grew in Egypt, I ran into a man who hid behind the bushes of fine dry leaves. I remember this part clearly. He'd stepped out from behind the bushes and in front of me. I can also remember being fearful because if you weren't of direct relation to the Pharaoh you could not step foot into the gardens. This meant that he was trespassing and dangerous.

He was so fast that I had no time to scream. He'd clamped his cold, dry hand down on my lips, through the mourning headdress that I was wearing. My eyes had met his cold, red eyes, the color of death and I'd tried to turn away, to run back to the safety of the guards but I couldn't, his grip was much too strong.

"You, my Queen, are a dangerously beautiful women." He'd told me, his Egyptian hair, always that oily black that men always supported here. His features were beautiful, but frightening because his eyes were turning black and he was taking in long breaths. The man, or being, was much to close to me and I could almost feel the unnatural cold that rolled off of his dirt smeared skin.

"Do you know what I am?" He'd asked me. I was unable to answer but he'd known the answer. "I am a living Sekhmet, and I'm afraid, my beloved Queen, that I'm terribly thirsty for your magnificently, divine blood." I never did get a chance to scream, or do anything to prepare myself because there was a blur and then my headdress was off of me and he was biting into me, right where my blood rushed closest to the surface of my skin.

Then I'd known pain. I don't know how it happened. I don't know if maybe the guards had all come rushing to find me, or if he'd simply decided that he was going to let me live. All I knew is the rage of Ra screaming through my veins for three days and two nights. I'd been unable to scream, unable to tell Ra how much I didn't like worshiping Aten. I clung to as many memories as I could, trying to get myself away from the pain.

When the power of Ra stopped, so did my heart.

The next part of my life I remember completely. I was a vampire with a thirst for blood and the only one who would step foot in this garden, even to find me, was my husband. I would like to say, now that I'm no longer so bloodthirsty, that I didn't take great pleasure in killing my tormentor, that I didn't enjoy sucking his Ka from the very body that had violated mine so many times. But then I would be lying wouldn't I? I sucked that bastard's blood, stealing his Ka and taking revenge for every time that man stole a piece of my own Ka. I would have my Ka back from him.

When he was drained there was nothing else I could do. I'd dropped his body, my body freezing in place for immeasurable amounts of time. I wasn't sorry, and I wasn't so much scared. See, we Egyptian people were never taught to fear ourselves, we weren't taught that other people, even servants had feelings. We nobles were taught to step on other people to get what we want.

I thank God himself everyday that I no longer feel the need to do that, because now that I was a Sekhmet I would never walk the path of Nefertiti again. Instead I took the name Neferneferuaten and I ruled in the stead of the mummified corpse of my once husband. I ruled that way for a short time, taking the blood of people that would not be missed, or people who were dying anyways. I found it hard to ignore the pulse of blood of the humans that always surrounded me. I realized things about me, things that were not like Sekhmet's legend. I couldn't sleep, that was the first thing that hit me. The worst had to have been that I sparkled or was it my new appearance.

The long black locks that had once draped from my head were still a gorgeous, shiny onyx that reflected light from the care that I had the servants take in washing it. My eyes, which were a piercing red, I did not hide. They were considered a blessing from Ra, and Amun. My lips were naturally the color of red, from the blood of others that I constantly devoured. Soon though, too soon, I realized that I was not aging, that Ra had given me this gift. But my son-in-law hated it. He thought, since he was the 'rightful' heir, that he should have the gift.

So I graced him with my gift, which was the hardest thing that I had ever done in my immortal life. He then married my daughter and betrayed me by taking the seat of Pharaoh from me. In return I sucked all the venom from his body, causing it to shrivel into a body not that unlike a human's. It took me centuries to trust any one and when I did, a nice loving elderly family, I ended up draining them when the wife got a cut.

That woke me up from my stupor. I knew that I had a power, and that Ra would have never done something like this. I guess I finally saw what I was, that I was taking innocent peoples Ka's and that I didn't want to live this way. I fled Egypt and my identity of Neferneferuaten. I ran in that desert until I was so far that there was no human for lengths to come. I ran to the closest ocean and forced myself into the deep recesses of the ocean where I could never take another Ka.

The ocean's pressure kept me under for years and years to come until my mind was driven mad with the call for blood. I had been slammed into a rock that now had a crevice just for me with coral surrounding, and growing on me. So I pushed my way out of the rock, unknowingly breaking it and I began swimming until I found something to sink my teeth into. It just so happened to be a large whale, which I had no idea existed at the time. I drained the poor thing dry and then sucked some more, trying to find more. After all I'd been bone dry for at least a decade. I sucked at least five whales in the pod, because swimming was another thing that my immense strength and speed had blessed me with.

When I climbed out of that ocean, and onto land I'll never remember what possessed me to have a look around. All I knew was this land was lush and had much better plants on it than I could imagine growing in Egypt.

This would later be called South America, Brazil. I met up with the locals who saw my beauty and worshiped me as a goddess. I was quick to leave though when I realized they ate humans, they were cannibals. Instead I stuck to my new found diet of animals. It wasn't as stabilizing as human blood but it was better than stealing Ka. Because of the lack of control that was a side effect of drinking humans I decided against blending with the humans. I spent centuries trying to curb my diet from the human diet. After drinking so carelessly, at least one a day, when I was a Pharaoh it was hard to do it.

I tried to push myself back into being a human, but that was wasted every time because I never had anyone who could understand. I had no one who could tell me to stop, no one to tell me that I shouldn't do that. I always ended up relapsing and having to 'kill' myself to get away.

During one of these times, I learnt exactly what my gift was, aging. No, I couldn't change my eyes to be violet, or some weird color. They were a golden color, red again if I faltered, and they would be that way, unless I changed my age. It's very simple, my gift. If I want to seem like I'm twenty, or if I want to seem like I'm fifty I can. I found it strange that my skin would turn from the pale color, back to my human looks simply by turning my age. It was as if my gift allowed me to continue my life after my change. It was as if this pale, beautiful body was just a stop on my biological growing process.

I used my gift frequently, just to revel in something good for me.

It also helped when I was finally able to fade back into a human life in the year 1994. I searched for a human family and I found them in Forks, Washington. They were a new couple, Charlie and Renee Swan. They had a baby that very day and were just now home. I knew that Charlie Swan was the Police Chief of Forks and Renee was a stay at home Mom, or she was now. All I had to do, since I curved my appetite so successfully now, was to ring the door bell and turn myself into a day old me. Let me tell you, I did not enjoy it.

But when Charlie Swan opened that door and I was met with my first sight of my new parents, I fell in love with this family.

"Renee! Hurry, get a blanket and some of Isabella's baby clothes!" Charlie had shouted, while bending to pick me up from the mass of old dirty, blood soaked rags that had been my clothing. He held me close, even though I was disturbingly butt naked. The lady, Renee Swan, had hurried to do what she was told, placing the day old baby in her carrier before coming to see what was wrong. I remember her gasp of surprise and then her taking me from Charlie to take care of me.

"Charlie what are we going to do?" Renee asked, sitting at the table, me in one arm with Bella in the other. I absolutely refused to breast-feed, I don't care how old I am, or whose child I am.

"I-I guess we are having another baby." Charlie said, slumped on the table, staring unbelievingly at my little face, which still held the golden eyes of my change. They are the only thing that I can't change back to human. It was silent for a bit, as Isabella Swan, my new sister, feed. I merely giggled and clutched the finger held out to me by Charlie. It was going to be a long time before I was going to be able to do anything fun, like reading or walking, but I planned to milk this. I wanted to be loved, to be cherished for more than just a gift to a rising Pharaoh.

"What do we call her then? What do we tell people? Oh, we're going to need more clothes. She can share a bed with Bella for now but they'll grow up and-" Renee started getting excited and she moved Bella away on accident, causing her to start crying. I, going on the instinct I had, cried with Bella. "Oh, Shhhh…" Renee tried to calm us down. I stopped crying, letting it turn into little whimpers.

"We'll get to all of that soon; just-just…take it one at a time." Charlie told her, though I could see the love and affection in his eyes for his new wife. They'd been together only shortly, it was really a shotgun wedding. Of course, I'd loved the reception.

"All right," Renee agreed, having hoisted Bella back to her feeding post. I frowned down at the bottle that was being shoved in my face. Oh, this was going to be disgusting. I latched on to the bottle and nearly jumped back into my older body just to get away from the taste, but it was a necessary sacrifice for being 'human'. I wonder if babies actually find this disgusting. "Then let's start with a name." She said, waving a finger in my face. I clutched it as I continued to suck down the disgusting stuff that passed as baby formula. You know, we fed our babies better than this and we were primitive people!

"…How about…" Charlie glanced down at me, and I giggled just to be cute, causing the new father to flash a charming half-smile at me. "Isabelle, to match Isabella?" He asked her, smiling at me and running his fingers over my scant few black hairs.

"But won't that be confusing? Isabelle and Isabella?" She asked, running the names through her mouth. I giggled extra loud to show that I liked it. It was different, something I've never thought to use. For the amount of time that I have under my belt, it's kind of confusing to remember all the names you've gone by. Luckily for me, I don't have to worry about that because a vampire's brain pretty much grabs on to information and stores it for later.

"Isabelle…." Renee tried out. "I love it." She finally decided.

**Yay! I know Twilight is a very confrontational thing. A lot of people don't like it and a lot of people do. My stories weird. I used to hate it because it's all people talked about but then I got bored. I read the book and fell in love with it so I bought the movie and watched it. I used to love Edward and Bella together. Then I started hating Edward because I could see all of the flaws in their relationship. So for a long time I followed the sea of haters, though I didn't scream out how much I hated it….just how much I hated Edward. Then I happened upon a story with Bella/Sam and I feel back in love with Twilight. I never liked Edward anymore, but I did have a thing for Bella/Paul, Bella/ basically everyone besides Seth, Esme, or something like that. **

** Now I'm a hardcore JasperBella or JasperOC. I was just watching Twilight because it had been on TV and I noticed him standing in the background and I was ,word for word this is what came out of my mouth, 'Holy Shit! Jasper's hot as hell!'. Yeah, I know weird. My mother went into a fit of hysterics but she likes James…**

**So, my question per update is what is your Twilight Story, I've told you mine already so return the favor please!**

**Oh and for my REGULAR READERS who have read my other stories and know my Destiny quality I'm really unsure about adding that on to this story. I don't think that I will because it would seem to Supernatural and I hate Twilight stories where she has a million different powers, or she's a witch or something. **

**Bye!**


	2. The Present

"Bella!" I screamed, jumping on her bed. Bella and I are 17 and we've just moved back to Forks. I have to tell you that the decision to stick myself back into my human body has really made me happy. I've lived a blissful life through the seventeen years that I've been here with my family and I wish I'd done it sooner and yet I don't because then I probably wouldn't have met Bella.

"What! What?" Bella woke up abruptly from my jumping. She was wearing that hideous, ratty old shirt with holes all in it and those wacky pajama bottoms. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fashion fanatic but after almost Three thousand and five-hundred years running around with the bare minimum of clothes on, you kind of just want to look good. What I'm trying to say? I'm not a fashion fanatic but I want clothes to wear. I don't do needless shopping for clothes I'll only wear once. Plus, the Swans don't have a bank account that just keeps filling with more money. Funny thing about being alive for the creation of banks…they seem to believe that they owe you money for that kind of thing.

"Today is the day that we have to surrender to the call of prison!" I dramatically announced, even holding my fist into the air. I liked to be dramatic so that Bella laughed more. Ever since Charlie and Renee divorced she's been Renee's keeper. I'm unashamed to say that I liked Charlie more than Renee, thus my lack of understanding of my goofy mother.

"English, Belle, English." Bella said, rubbing her eyes.

"High school," I stated more bluntly than before. "Spoil sport." I snorted, going to the closet. Wow, Bella already unpacked…meh I'll do it later. Instead of worrying about the mass of clothing that I'd thrown out while getting ready this morning, I focused on instead pulling some of Bella's better fitting clothing for her to wear. "Now, we want you to make an impression, but not enough that everyone thinks you are a social butterfly. Lord knows you can't speak five sentences without stuttering." I teased, earning a pillow to the back of my head.

Bella's room, now that I cared to look at it, looked just like it did when we were four. My room, that I'd received on my third birthday, wasn't purple like Bella's but instead it was a maroon and red color with rainbow handprints from a long time ago. It held a dresser, vanity, closet, bed, bookshelf, and desk. Lucky for me I got a back view of the lush forests of Forks. Bella got a view of the road.

"Ugh, kill me now." Bella muttered, but obediently rose from bed.

"Well I can't do that!" I tell her brightly, pushing a blue blouse up to her front, and then throwing it over my shoulder as I turn back to the neat closet…yuck. "Then I'd have no ride to school!" I teased her again. She laughed and shoved my shoulder lightly. I turn over my shoulder and for a moment we share one of those bonds, the one I've missed out on all of my life, even when I was _really _human. My eyes are smiling at hers, and we both understand.

"Thanks for coming with me Belle." She whispered. Truthfully I'd kind of been expecting it; I mean Bella was born with manners that I made sure she took to. What? I can be well mannered….sometimes.

"Don't mention it." I whisper into her mahogany hair as she hugged me, her hair was so different from my black hair. Everyone believes we're fraternal twins. Some speculated that I was from an affair because my exotic, old Egyptian, looks were so different from Bella's. I was sun kissed naturally, and she didn't have coal black hair, nor the straight back of someone born to rule….or golden eyes. But I solved that by wearing brown contacts everyday for the rest of my 'human' life. "Ever." I finished, causing us both to laugh and for her to push me again.

"Honestly, can't you be serious?" She playfully asked as I shoved an outfit for her to wear into her hands.

"I could," I started, already making my way back to my own room to get dressed. "But then we'd both be solemn Juliet's, just waiting for our Romeo to come and sc-" I shut up as soon as I saw Dad standing there in the hall outside of his room, an eyebrow raised. Oh, How I loved my quirky Dad. He was just like Bella, awkward at showing affection, can't speak in front of new people, and absolutely hilarious when he wants to be. "-to come and have our Dad beat him to death. That's what I was going to say." I sweetly amended my sentence.

"Right." He grunted before stomping down the stairs.

"Someone isn't a morning person." I sung down to him as I went around the stairs and into my own room. Did I tell you that my room was messy, though I had taken down all of my kid things unlike Bella; I hadn't bothered with anything else. Everything was strewn around the room, making it look like a ravage beast lived in it and not a woman. I strode to my closet and began hanging things up, using a little extra help by turning back to my twenty-two year old vampire self so that I could hang it all up quicker. I turned back right on time for Bella to walk in, with a towel and bath cloth.

"I'm going first, Belle." She informed me while throwing the items down on my made bed. I rolled my eyes and dug through my closet for my own clothes. I grabbed my unmentionables, and then some black skinny jeans and a shirt that had one of the famous, 'Keep Calm and" Things on it. This one was red and said Procrastinate Now and Panic Later. It was a Christmas present from Phil, Renee's new husband. I pulled out my worn black jacket and red converse. Yeah…I was pimping don't hate!

I already had on my necklaces, one that had both of my Egyptian names in hieroglyphics, one on either side. The other held two of my children's names, Tut, and Meketaten. Silly, I know but I loved it anyways. Just to be annoying I snapped on a bracelet that had a 'family' crest with one of those side-turned faces. Weird, but hey, it was on sale. When Bella finally got out of the bathroom I was quick to shower. In no time we met up at the old truck of Bella's. It was a gift from Charlie to both of us but Bella loved it so much that I let her call dibs on ownership.

"I'm just saying, he's not that good looking." I said, looking at the cover of one of Bella's novels – The Hunger Games. "He's just had his hair brown for to long to suddenly dye it blonde in this movie!" I exclaimed. We were talking about the main love puppy, Peeta. Me? I liked the drunken Haymitch – especially in the movie.

"You just don't want her to end up with Peeta because you're still mad at him for Bridge to Tarribithia." Bella exclaimed as she pulled into the Forks High parking lot.

"I still say she shouldn't have died!" I argued, unbuckling the seatbelt. I hoped out of the car with my plain black backpack and met Bella around the curb, just in time to hear some man speak to her. "Nice ride." He told her. I immediately sneered at him.

"Better than yours." I told him, glancing at the van.

"Belle." Bella warned. I rolled my eyes as she tugged me along beside her.

"Asshole number one." I told her. "You know, one day I'm going to go to jail for kicking some one in the ball's so hard they need testicle retraction surgery." I declared. I blinked as Bella laughed. "What?" I pouted at her.

"You are unbelievable." She just said, continuing along. I muttered and laced my arm with hers, taking the lead to the clearly marked Office for our schedules. Great thing about moving in the middle of the semester, you get a brand new schedule to memorize, Yay. Please take note of the blatant sarcasm being used.

"I once believed that to." I told her then paused as I realized that everyone was staring at us. "Wow, they can't even hide it. Phoenix did better than them, and we were in kindergarten!" I noted. Really, teens these days.

I tugged Bella into the Office, to see some old women sitting behind the desk chewing gum and staring at a game of solitaire on her computer that she was hopelessly losing. Poor chap, those things kill me to.

"Excuse me." Bella tentatively spoke. Oh, shy Bella, why must you be here? Mrs. Cope, as I read on the little wooden name pate, looked up lazily but as soon as she saw us she sat up straighter and her eye gained that gossip sparkle in it.

"Oh, you two are the Swan twins. Isabella and Isabelle, right?" She asked us.

"Bella." My sister corrected at the same time as I said, "Belle."

"Oh, okay let me get your schedules and your slips." She shuffled around in a mess of papers and other office things, like those darned paperclips…evil bastards. Finally she pulled out four pieces of paper, handing both of us two of them. I realized that they were our schedules and a slip with slots for the teacher's names.

"You just bring this back, signed by all of your teachers at the end of the day and you'll be all set." Mrs. Cope told us, already drifting back to the oh so interesting solitaire game.

"Thank you." I told her, walking away already with the schedule. As soon as the door to the Office closed and we were on our way I was staring at the room numbers beside the teachers name and class. Ugh, Calculus first period. "All right Bella. You shot me first and I'll make sure to hire an assassin to shot you last." I told her, referring to her earlier comment of shot her.

"Not a chance." She responded without even looking up. It was because of this that she completely missed the guy who was approaching us. Yes, first person with the balls to talk to us instead of staring. He had nice hair, an alright face but kind of geeky. I liked him, friend-wise.

"You two are Isabella and Isabelle Swan, the new girls." He said first thing. I took his offered hand, smiling politely. "I'm Eric." He continued, also shaking a nervous Bella's hand. We'd stopped in the middle of the hall. We're just lucky that we were early. I just hope that I find my class before I get in trouble with a teacher. "The eyes and the ears of this place. Anything you need? Tour guide? Lunch date? Shoulder to cry on?" He asked us.

I laughed lightly but let Bella answer for now. "I'm kind of a suffer in silence type." She told him. I rolled my eyes and tugged her schedule out of her hands. Oh, no classes together, damn. Well at least we both had lunch and break together. Oh, wait, I have gym with her, yes!

"Ugh, better than nothing." Then I looked to this Eric guy. "Do you think you could point us to the right classes?" I asked him, showing him both of ours. He pointed me down the hall and to the left, third building, and the second door on the right. He pointed Bella just to the right in Building Three, The Fourth door on the left.

"You know we're doing a feature in the school newspaper, on you two. You're both big news, front page." Eric commented. Bella automatically halted, she'd been leaving to go to class.

"I – no, I'm not news – We aren't..-" She stuttered through it. I laughed at her stutter.

"I told you, you would stutter." I told her. She was blushing scarlet.

"Whoa, chillax." Eric said at her severe reaction, still smiling. "No feature." He promised.

"Oh, thank you." She breathed, to relived to really get anything else out.

"I'll talk to you later Bella, meet me for lunch." I told her, huggin her right there, glaring over her backpack at a guy who had been trying to air hump her from a far. In turn I moved a finger over my neck and pointed my finger at him. He stopped at once and turned away.

"Yeah, see you later, sis." She told me walking away, not knowing that I had just threatened to kill a student I didn't know the name of…oh but I will. I will.

"Well," I cheerfully proclaimed, slapping my hands together lightly, got to be careful you know. Don't want to clap to loudly and deafen the humans. "I'm off to torture 101, wish me luck." I told Eric he laughed and waved as I started off down the corridor.

With Eric's directions it really wasn't that hard to find the room and get my slip signed by the enthusiastic, Ms. Lovet. Really? Math is already torture for me, why can't they give me a teacher who won't try to smother me in it. I avoid taking a seat yet, because there will obviously be seating already picked out. She sees my dilemma and just points me to the back seat on the right corner, right beside a window. _Score! _

I'm only sat down for maybe five minutes before the bell rings and kids start pouring in, as eager as I had been. Just goes to show that if they've been taking her class for so long and still dread it then I'm a goner. I stare out at the pretty butterfly that was being humped by another one in fascinated disgust. Don't deny, when you see you automatically stop what you are doing and look to. I know it, so don't lie to me.

"Well, class, as I'm sure you've noticed, we have a new student among us." Ms. Lovet announced. _Oh shit. _She's going to make me introduce myself, isn't she? "Isabelle, why don't you introduce yourself?" I stand up, as she motioned me to and I'm tempted to say something that would get me in trouble but, I had best not.

"I'm Isabelle Swan, call me Belle. I have a sister, named Isabella." I told the class, not looking at any of them because I really didn't want to see them. I sat back down, sure that my cheeks were following my sister's example and blushing red.

"All right. Now class we'll begin right where we left off, with the Circumference formula for the figure…" The class went on forever. I swear, I think someone did it on purpose. I couldn't really do anything but take notes and work on the end of class worksheet, just like everyone else but I was proud to say that I'd already studied this in my geometry class in Phoenix. Maybe I would know everything that they've covered since Phoenix has an advanced school system. There was only a few practice problems for homework that were a sinch so I was left staring out the window of my classroom as I waited for the bell. Everyone else were talking but I didn't know anyone.

"Um, excuse me." Some one said, and I turned, curious to see a brunette with glasses looking at me nervously. "Um, I'm Angela." She told me. I shook her offered hand, smiling politely again. "I just wanted to say that if you need some help, then I would gladly help you." She blushed slightly and I was reminded of Bella a little.

"Oh, no I've covered this lesson all ready but I'm horrible at math so I might need that offer in the future." I joked with her. She smiled widely at me and I smiled back. "It's nice to meet you though, Angela. I got to say that I love your hair though." Yeah, safe topic that hair.

"Oh, thank you." She said back. "I love your necklace, are the hieroglyphics real?" She asked I fingered the well worn cartouche hanging from the leather necklace.

"Yeah, it says Nefertiti on one side, Neferneferuaten. It's cool a pen pal from Egypt sent it to me." I told her, holding it up to the light. That was a complete lie though. This was the same cartouche that I'd hung around my neck Three thousand and five-hundred years ago. Small world, huh?

"And what does the other one say?" Angela asked, actually intrigued but I was glad she refrained from touching the cartouches.

"Tutankhamun and Meketaten. Tut was her step-son and Meketaten was her first dead daughter." I told her, holding up the second cartouche. She stared at it in wonder, just as the bell for the door rang. I stood up, tucking my notebook and pencil away in my bag. I held out my schedule, curious as to how to find my next class, French I. Bummer, knew that language. Why couldn't it be Russian or Spanish? That shit, I might need to know later on.

"Do you want me to walk you to that class?" Angela asked me. I smiled happily at her.

"I would have to hail you my hero because I'm completely lost on where to go." She laughed again and started leading me down the halls, and out of the building to another. Oi, this was going to be hard to remember.

"All right, it's in this building, the first door on the left, the one with 'Bonjour' on the wall beside it. It's really easy to see and the teacher is awesome, I have her third period." She told me.

"Thanks Angela, I'd be lost without your wisdom of years." I exaggerated. She only laughed again.

"Your funny." She told me. "I'll see you at lunch?" She tentatively asked.

"Awesome! You can meet my sister, Bella." I told her, waving as she walked off to go where ever she had to go. I stepped into the classroom and froze at once. Usually when I use my gift, aging myself, my vampire like qualities leave me until I turn back, however the only other thing that's stayed, besides the eyes, has been my nose. I can smell things just like any other human, but I can also smell the supernatural. Let me tell you, that you don't want to know the story behind how I figured that one out.

My eyes flitted around the room, which only held five students actually. There in the back sat a short brunette with short spiky kind of hair. She had the appropriate pale skin, golden eyes, and dark bags under her eyes. Wow, I've never met another animal drinker before. I don't want to be premature about it though, so instead of introducing myself to her, and proclaiming that I was a 3,500 year-old vampire, I merely took a seat next to the inner wall.

I refused to stare at her, and I didn't need to. I still have the vampire memory and I was already analyzing her image in my mind. What would come of my appearance here? I would never know. I've never tested to see if other vampires could tell that I was different in my aged body before. I guess since she hasn't swooped down on me then I'm good for now.

I went through French class easy. Angela was right, the teacher was awesome and she explained everything she wanted me to do so that I could catch up in her class. I told her that I'd already learned the French language and she requested that from now on every time I speak to her to use French. I was kind of happy for that because French, despite my earlier words, was a beautiful language.

When the bell rang, the little vampire was out the door right before anyone else. Huh, I forgot that they'd have to think about stuff like that, the speed, and the extra show of skills. I wonder what they did for lunch? I'd hate to have to stuff food down my throat while a vampire. I did that once, while I was still a vampire, to punish myself for devouring a human male who just hadn't understood the words 'back the hell off'.

I skipped then to gym, which I was lucky enough to know where is. It was the only building with the walls twice the size of the others. I stepped into the room, feeling the cool air on my face, and the sweaty smell of to much perfume, and to much axe. Ugh, that's nasty.

"Belle!" I heard Bella and I walked to her, where she stood at the entrance to the changing rooms. "Hey, how's the tally so far?" She asked me.

"First period, was okay but French was awesome. I'm hoping that I can skim out of as much of gym as possible." I told her, following her to change. We didn't even pause in the conversation as we changed into the already supplied uniforms. Apparently when Charlie signed us up they gave them to him. Luckily he had my number to ask for sizes.

"Don't count on it. With me hanging around you'll be on the ground most of the time." She solemnly commented. Bella was a magnet for injuries. She always tripped; there hasn't been a day where she hasn't fallen down or something.

"Yes well, I've lived with it for a long, long, long, long,-" She punched my shoulder and I fake held it in pain.

"Oh, the pain of a Bella punch!" I wailed, causing the girls that were lingering to look at us, those who weren't already that is. "What?" I asked them, smiling innocently.

"You will be the death of me one day." Bella exclaimed, now using her gym bag to swat at me. I wiggled in place for a second. I couldn't die in this form, believe me I've tried, but I could still get hurt. I'd just end up having a 'miracle' if I got to hurt. See my body would automatically shimmer into the glorious vampire me. Yippee. Sarcasm? Yes. Needed? Probably not.

"Oh just shut up." I told her, walking out with her. We chatted a lot as we stood to the side as the volley ball team started. No matter what Bella said, they wouldn't let her out of it. So I accompanied her in her spot at the side, hitting the ball when it came close to us. And just one time, I completely didn't see it coming, no vampire eyes, remember, and it came at Bella. She completely panicked and slapped it away from her with closed eyes.

I couldn't help but laugh hysterically when it hit one of the guys playing basketball upside the head. I saved Bella from embarrassment by taking the fall for it.

"I'm sorry, I hit it wrong, and I'm not the best at Volleyball." I told the boy. He had that normal, small town blonde hair boy-who-everyone-pretends-to-want guy. I took the Volleyball he offered me.

"No, no, it's okay." He told me, smiling what I'm sure was supposed to be charming it only made me want to laugh at his try. "It's a flesh wound, really." I smile at him and go to head back to Bella but he continues talking. "You're Isabella, Right?" He asked.

"Uh, no, actually I'm Isabelle but please call me Belle." I told him.

"Mike. Newton." He offered, shaking my hand. I smiled, again trying to get away but then Jessica, someone I instantly didn't like bounded over.

"Hi, she's got a mean spike doesn't she?" Jessica says. It's obvious how she likes Mike. I can practically see her screaming at him that she likes him. "So, you're from Arizona, right?" She asks, smiling because we were introduced informally earlier. "Aren't people supposed to be tan down there?" She asked, I saw Bella waiting for me, already dressed.

"Yeah, well maybe that's why I decided to kick their butts and leave." I distractedly answered. "Hey, I got to go, but it was good meeting you two." I told them, smiling. I hit the Volleyball away, not knowing or caring what to do with it. Instead I ran to the dressing room, pulling on every article of clothing as fast as possible. Did you know that I haven't taken this jacket off once? It's cold and wet here. I love it. The lush scenery and the rain remind me of my time in Brazil. I kind of like this place better.

**All right. I know I've just started this story and I'm already putting up a new chapter but I'm going on vacation and I don't know how often I can type. So as a favor to you guys I put this chapter up for you instead of my Hunger Games one because I haven't finished the next chapter. It just seems to be alluding me!**

**So question per update,**

**What is a question you want to ask me?**


	3. The First Glance

"All right!" I shouted, scaring Bella as I started abruptly dragging her to what I presume is the lunch room by the way the crowd was going. "Note to Bella, stay away from Jessica, and Mike. Both of them are bad news." I warned her.

"Note taken and stored, oh master of advice." She sarcastically said. Just as I went to swat her on the side of the head I saw Angela, and she was standing with Mike and Jessica. Oh, the sacrifices.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to them." I cheered. She snorted used to my odd behavior. I pulled up in line for food right behind them, smiling as I tapped Angela on the shoulder.

"Hey," She greeted, smiling at me. I pointed at Bella.

"This is my sister, Bella, that I told you about first period, Bella this is Angela." I introduced them. Then I spotted a miracle in liquid form. "Do they sell Nugrape for lunch?" I asked, placing one hand on my heart and another on Bella's shoulder. I widened my eyes. All together it looked like I'd just seen the world's best gift but had had no idea about its existence before now.

"Oh, no." Bella groaned. I speed walked and grabbed two drinks before hauling ass back to my part in the line. I stroked the bottle, even as I took a tray and loaded it with the necessary food….let's see…Carrots and Ranch? Yes…..Celery? Hell no….Pizza…meh let's get some….Ahhh…corn on the cob, a little slice of small city heaven. I paid for my food and I trudged to the table with the others, talking with them as they talked about what they were going to do for the future. Bella, just as I'd been, was caught in the clutches of Mike as we sat down at the circular tables.

Just as we sit down, Eric squishes between us, smiling. "Mike, you met my home girls?" He teases. Oh, I can see it now, Eric, Bella, Mike, and I making a square of rejections. There was no way Bella would like them, and I couldn't stand the thought of kissing a human boy. Don't get me wrong, my control is wonderful and spotless now, but kissing a human boy would be gross. Especially when you can probably taste all those human things like sweat and testosterone. Ugh…nasty.

"Uh, oh, your home girls?" Mike stuttered out, surprised. I snorted and started eating the food. It tasted all right, for cafeteria food. Being human right now, the venom in my stomach acted instead of stomach acid and just absorbed the food like a fire to matches.

Suddenly the guy from earlier, the one who'd been rude to Bella when we first arrived walked up, leaning on Mike's chair beside me and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "No, my home girls." He said, tugging the chair from out from under Mike. I wiped at my cheek like a fish had just kissed me. Bella only laugh and pointed. She knew I didn't really like to be touched by people that I wasn't related to, especially if they were boys.

"It's not funny." I scowled at her. Jessica took Mike's empty seat, pulling her tray over.

"Wow, it's first grade all over again, and you're the shiny new toys." She joked. I laughed out of politeness because I really didn't see the funny side of someone I don't know kissing me on the cheek. Angela ended up covering that very well by holding up her camera and snapping a picture of Bella and I.

"Sorry, needed a candid for the feature-" Angela explained, only for Eric to interrupt.

"Feature's dead, Angela. Don't bring it up again." Eric said, rising from his place. I stuck the last carrot on my plate in my mouth as he patted Bella's shoulders. "I got your back baby." He said before leaving, to go talk to a group of people that look like they were born on the computer.

"I guess we'll just run another editorial on…teen drinking." Angela muttered, deleting the picture. I felt bad, she seemed to really like the newspaper gig and we just ruined her chance of people reading it.

"Well, you could always go for speedo padding on the swim team." I suggested. I was lacking for something to add because I didn't really know that much gossip around here.

"Or, eating disorders." Bella contributed. I nearly snorted in laughter when Jessica slowly put the piece of celery she'd been lightly chewing back on her plate. She obviously didn't have one so she must be a hypochondriac.

"Actually, those are good ideas!" Angela said, surprised. I smiled at her but I was distracted as I was hit with the sweet smell of vampires again. I glanced at Bella and she was staring at them as they entered. Good Lord, how many of them were there …2…4…5? Yeah, five and at least another to play the parent role. Damn, that was a big coven.

They come in holding hands and I can guess who's mated with whom. Really there seemed to be only one couple, the big guy and the gorgeous blonde. The brunette from before was walking with a male with wonderful blonde hair that hung to his chin and dark clothes, just like the others, his eyes held pain in them I also made note of that, but she was not holding his hand or looking like a love struck weirdo so I assume they were unmated. Another one walked in, bronze, messy hair and a face that screamed at people to keep away. I rolled my eyes back to the table to see that Jessica was staring at Bella and I knowingly. Oh, shit, she better not get the idea in her head that I like them. I demand the right to be curious!

"Who are they?" Bella asked before I could stop her. They had gotten their food, since no one was in the line. It was clever of them to wait so they wouldn't get trampled by the scent of humans. They all couldn't have been over two hundred years old, any of them, well maybe that blonde one with the pained eyes. I could smell it, and every vampire could smell the general age of another…that is if the vampire wasn't currently human because her gift was aging. What made me want to bang my head on the table was that they could hear her. How embarrassing is that? Had best not tell Bella, she'd light up like a red dot and even the satellites would see her.

I saw their eyes flicker to our group. They all seemed kind of disinterested in the topic so it obviously happened a lot. I wonder how long they've been parading as human students for. Was it something they always did? Huh, interesting.

"_Those_, are the Cullens." Jessica muttered, looking down at her plate as she scooted forward. I was just glad I didn't have to look at them. They could probably hear us talking and I was probably red from embarrassment. Damn these human cheeks of mine! "Doctor Cullen and Mrs. Cullen's foster kids. They all moved down here from Alaska two years ago." Oh, seven then, two parental figures. I wonder what these vampires were like if they could portray family ties.

I refused to talk, sensing that this would be a bad idea. I know the first thing out of my mouth would be to tell Jessica to shut the hell up and talk about something not Cullen related.

"They kinda keep to themselves." Angela said. I knew I liked her! She doesn't sound judgmental at all, and I liked that automatically about her. I ate the last of the disgusting pizza. Note to self: Forks High does not have better pizza then the rest of the High schools.

"Because they're all together. Like, together together. The blonde girl, Rosalie, and the big dark-haired guy, Emmett…" I glance again under the guise of looking out the window but I'm actually distracted by a black widow hanging outside the window….huh, I always found those deadly things distracting. "And the little dark haired girl, Alice, she's really weird…"

"But Belle, said she was in her French class, she didn't report weirdness. Trust me, she can spot weirdness from a mile-" I cuffed her on the back of the head in traditional Gibbs' way so she would shut up now. I mean one time I was right about a guy stealing the girls changing clothes and it's like I'm a psychic for her.

"…Well, it's rumored that she's with Jasper, the blonde male who looks like he's in pain." I glance again but damn that spider moved. As I glance down from the spider I catch the eyes of the little brunette girl and I'm slightly surprised when she winks at me. No one is talking at their table and really, it's like they don't understand how to fit in.

"Jessica they aren't dating." Angela looks like this conversation has happened again and again. I'm guessing since the Cullens had been the new kids before that they were getting the same treatment as we are now.

"Yeah but still they all live together, it's weird." She muttered, and I can see it and I almost start laughing. I settle for a tightlipped expression. I can just picture every single Cullen turning her down right now. That, that just made my day. That is an awesome image. I don't look back but I do take the moment to look at the clock. It's almost time for the bell to ring and I can't help but want it to ring now.

"Jess they aren't even related." Angela admonished. Again I feel a swell in pride for Angela, the friend who has a moral center.

"Anyways, Dr. Cullen's like this foster dad slash match maker." Jessica tells us, giggling and Angela actually goes for this one.

"Maybe he'll adopt me." She says, smiling at us. I silently laugh, knowing that if my gut was telling me not to talk, then I shouldn't. Maybe it was to do with the Cullens. Who knows? I mean I pretty much gave up on any kind of vampire normalcy when I decided to turn into a baby Swan. Bella laughs to but I don't think she's really thinking about the laugh. Instead she's glancing at the bronze vampire.

"Who's he?" She asks and I pick at the once glorious corn on my plate. Jessica doesn't even have to stop to look at who she's talking about.

"That's Edward Cullen, totally gorgeous, obviously." She muttered, in an infatuated way. Wow, I might have been right; she might have been rejected by all of the Cullen's. "But apparently nobody here's good enough for him." You know I kind of feel bad for her. It seems like she's always getting rejected. Mike was completely oblivious to her and all of the Cullen's refused her. Now I can see why she acts this way, it's preservation at its base form.

I glanced at the Cullen's and this Edward Cullen's mouth had twitched in a smirk. Yeah, you are amused but she's a woman! We hurt on the inside just like men try to act like they don't. I grimaced as my throat seared, I was going to have to hunt soon, and the last time I hunted was a week before we left Phoenix. "Like I care you know." Jessica finished. She really isn't good at hiding her emotions though.

Instead of watching the Cullen's I settled for watching my sister stare at the vampires. She had no idea, no one knew that I was a vampire but I could already see that this was going to be a problem for her. I couldn't stop it though because Bella is her own person. I'll just have to make sure to kill them if they hurt her. "Seriously, like, don't waste your time." Jessica warned us. I settled for nodding and smiling at her.

"I wasn't planning on it." Bella lied. She may have never had a boyfriend but Bella couldn't see that she was beautiful; it just wouldn't sink into her skull. I rubbed my throat a little bit, inconspicuously of course, and pushed the rest of the food away from me. It was probably because the ones she did like turned out to be deuces in the end. She's learnt to take my advice now, when I warn her away from certain people. I glanced at Bella and to my surprise she seemed to have locked eyes with Edward Cullen. I raised my eyebrows when his face showed confusion for a second but it was over soon and he looked away from her.

I glanced again at the bell, and rose from my seat when the bell rang right on time. I was thankful that the bell decided to grant me this mercy. I guess I know how it feels to hear people talking about you when they think you can't hear. That only made it even more embarrassing to be apart of the conversation. It was with these thoughts that I almost leap up to throw my leftovers away. I have my bag over one shoulder and my other hand was trying to straighten out my jacket under it so I trip right into Bella.

"Ekk!" She squeaks and we go down together. I groaned as my kneecaps made contact with the floor but luckily I've guarded Bella's head. The last time we fell together she got a concussion and we had to rush her to the hospital.

"You okay?" She asked me. I grinned and nodded, moving off of her, only to groan as my kneecaps moved. Yep, going to be bruised tomorrow. Alas, I pull myself together and dust myself off, like Bella scrambles to do. We've made a scene but it's clearing now. I glance around the room and the Cullen's are still here, just by the doors, staring at us. I accidently looked at the blonde male, Jasper? He meets my eyes but I just blinked. He thinks I'm a human and with those odds I can bet that even if I smiled he wouldn't return it.

Instead I loop my arm with Bella's and start out again on my way to find our classes. After we realize that we are on other sides of the campus again we break off. I've gotten a hang of the room numbers now and it's pretty easy to find my American History class. This one I know is going to be boring. I'm going to be mixed with seniors and well, let's just say that Seniors who takes full advantage of the fact they are graduating this year are assholes in the classroom.

I find the room okay and it's an okay looking room, with the few posters on the walls and a few, well protected artifacts around the room. I just head straight to the front of the room. I'm only surprised that when I'm glancing around the room my eyes land on that same blonde vampire, Jasper from before. I shrug helplessly because what could I do? Instead I hand my slip to the teacher and silently take it back when he's done. I'm thankful that it looks like no introductions this time.

All I have to do is go to the appointed seat, right next to Jasper. The only thing I can think of is how I'm going to make it through this school without giving them away. I was good at keeping my secret because I could do human things, but I could see their problems with the act. The biggest had to have been the no talking together thing. But they all were gorgeous so I'm betting none of the humans even noticed.

I focused on the history class. It was nice, I guess. Most of the class was based on the facts that the humans recorded about American History. I didn't much prefer history class. I lived through most of it, granted not all of it since it was just American History. I didn't just hang out on this continent you know.

After a good bit into the lesson I felt the guy, Jasper, shift to look at me. I blink and look at him to but I'm only confused. I want to ask him why he's staring at me but the teacher is speaking and I don't fancy any arguments after that one with my art teacher at Phoenix. So I just look forward again but his eyes only continue to stare at me. I began to feel weird though, kind of over curious but about what? I couldn't say. I couldn't even think of what, that's how curious I was.

Oh, wait….did he…Is it possible?

I wonder if this vampire has a gift. But why would he use it on an unsuspecting human? Entertainment. Damn, I'm entertainment for him well he can shut the hell up. I ignore the curious feeling and settled for continuing to listen to the lecture. If this vampire thinks he can just force emotions on me I'll just show him why a 3,500 year old is better than him. After a few millenniums you get good at both ignoring things like emotions and anything really….that's a long time to learn things you know.

The bell finally rings and I look up to the ceiling in thanks before I push all of my stuff into my bag and go out the door, making sure not to stick around for Jasper to shove more emotions on me, way to make an impression. And he had such pretty hair to…all the assholes do…my husband had wonderful hair but look where that got him.

**Okay! Brilliant! Magnificent!...I've got nothing. I really don't have that much to say. Have you ever had that moment where you know you've forgotten something that was semi important and then you _just _can't remember what it was? **

**I'm having that emotion _right _now. **

**Anyways, I guess the question per update would be….Mike Newton or Jessica Stanley? Which do you hate most and why?**

**I'm thinking Jessica Stanley. She reminds me of people I know and put up with. **

**Anyways. Hope you guys like where this is going!**


	4. The Feeding

After another few grueling hours of school, of which I had one class with Alice Cullen I was free to walk to freedom or more specifically, Bella's monster. My throat was a constant dull warning that tonight was time for a hunt. I had to wait on her to get out because her class was on the other side of the school. I decided that I had best find me something to do. Well, I don't have an Ipod and I don't have a book with me…what to do? Oh, hey a Volvo. I don't really like it that much, but of course I don't really care about the engine, it just looks weird to me. I like the bug though. It's such a small car and who names a car the bug?

I unzip my backpack and I decide I need to take stock of the homework. Let's see a few problems that I already finished for first period…French I have to decipher a worksheet…History read a section in the book…Oh, I should work on my year long art project. I wonder what I'm going to do with that. I bet every one else is drawing or something. I could make a sculpture I guess.

"Hey." Bella breezed into the spot beside me. I looked up to smile at her.

"Well Hello, Curby where's the fire?" I asked her, jokingly.

"You won't believe what happened to me in Biology." She started, unlocking her door so she could push the lock for my door. I rolled my eyes and threw my backpack into the car. "And then just now in the office." She said, slamming her door shut in the rush. I closed mine and raised an eyebrow when she didn't start the truck.

"All right, Miss Hyper Beam, what is this new gossip?" I asked her zipping up my backpack and angling myself so that I could listen to her. I crossed my hands in my lap so that I could fidget if it was boring. Not that I was usually bored with Bella but one must prepare for the worst.

"I got glared at by Edward Cullen in biology. I mean I don't know what I did to him but he looked like I'd killed his cat." She told me and my gaze narrowed at once. How odd. A vampire glaring at a human was something that didn't happen unless they felt bloodlust for them.

"I'll kill him." I growled. He won't touch my sister. I'll rip his head right of his shoulders before I let him touch Bella. I pulled the door open, prepared to march right over to that silver Volvo that the Cullens were now convened around. I could already feel my human cells wanting to shift back to vampire cells.

"No!" She exclaimed, pulling my door shut. I froze but made sure I was glaring at the head of Edward Cullen. He turned my way, and frowned when he saw me glaring at him. I wanted to make a motion like I had earlier, like dragging my thumb across my neck to show him how much I really wanted to kill him but I decided that it was best to refrain.

"Why can't I kill him?" I asked her. Edward Cullen had gotten in the Volvo, of course it was his. What a pansy. What kind of man buys a Volvo? Well, he can stuff it because if he touches my sister his head is mine.

"Because! I-I can take care of it myself." She lied. I turned to her now, eyebrows raised sky high I'm sure.

"You are a horrible liar." I told her. "But if for some reason you have a crush on Edward Cullen then I'll refrain from killing him…today." I muttered the last part. Thankfully she started her truck, and ignored my last comment. "So, there is more to this story I'm sure, tell me." I ordered, buckling my seatbelt.

"When I went to turn in my slip, in the office-"

"Shit!" I exclaimed. "I completely forgot about that damn slip." I fumbled around in my bag for it while Bella burst into laughter at me. I jumped out of the truck as she stopped it and re-parked it. I unbuckled myself and pushed the door open. "I'll be right back and you can tell me." I told her, running off to hurry to the office. I was lucky, Ms. Cope was there waiting for me with a lazy smile.

"Oh, Thank you dear." She said, dismissing me. I rolled my eyes and bolted back out of the door to the office and back out to the parking lot. I hate running. Pharaoh's don't run it's undignified. It symbolizes disrespect for the ground when you pound it with your feet. Queen's and nobles are to walk lightly, and glide around the room. That hate for running had developed in my vampire and my human life now. But I did it anyways because it was for the best that I didn't keep Bella waiting. By the time that I made it back to the truck the parking lot had very few cars left in it.

I was glad to see that the Cullens were gone now, so I wouldn't have to kill them. Well just that one. The others didn't seem to want to kill my sister so it all seemed rather good for them. I don't like to brag but I have some fighting skills. And when I say a lot, I mean for about three whole centuries I focused on killing both other vampires, and humans.

Once I was in the car Bella proceeded to tell me all about the mystery Cullen who seemed to hate her guts. I didn't have the heart to tell her that all he wanted was her blood. I tried to make it seem like he was just interested in her because she was new but she didn't buy it. When she finally pulled into our drive I was happy to retreat to my room to think.

I was going to have to work on my toleration skills. No doubt that he wouldn't kill her, because if he did then that would cause a lot of problems for her. Instead I focused on what I should do. Did I want them to know that I was a vampire? I have to admit that it would be fun to get to know them. I don't have a lot of vampire friends and they seemed to share in my thoughts to preserve human life. But how do I tell them? I didn't want to just out right tell them, that would be horrible and I'd never gain their trust.

"Maybe I should just wait." I decided out loud. I nodded to myself and got to work on my human homework instead. It didn't take me long to answer the questions before I was done. Then I went on to make a list of the things I would need for an art sculpture. Then I changed my mind and decided that I probably shouldn't because it would cost to much for a normal teenager to afford and it was probably best that I didn't outshine the other humans. So then I made a whole new list for a painting. I'd paint a family picture of Bella and me together, that sounded alright.

"Hey," I heard. I smiled up at Charlie as he stood propped against the door frame. I had moved from my place at my desk so that I could sit on my bed. "You look like you're adjusting well to life in Forks." He commented. I rolled my eyes at him.

"It's not like I didn't come here for a month every summer Dad." I told him. Unlike Bella I had wanted to spend a lot of time with Dad. I'd seen the man he was before Renee crushed his heart by taking us and leaving. I didn't hold it against Bella for liking Renee better because all she knew was the Charlie that was still in love with her mother. I knew the man who had actually been confident in himself, and had been a great father.

"Right, right. I'm taking Bella down to the diner, you coming?" He asked me and it was easy for us to slip back into the role of daughter and father. We'd always been closer, it was just that I understood his problems and he knew not to dig to far into my weird qualities.

"Of course." I told him, throwing the notepad down on my desk. I sat down on the edge of my bed to pull on my converse again, and my jacket.

"I'm just going to go change out of my uniform first." He told me, shuffling to his own room. I smiled at his back and moved to the big window at my wall. I looked out at the tree line and couldn't help but glance for some animals. The dull ache would have to be seen to. It was only an annoyance at the back of my mind but I still wanted to fix it before school tomorrow.

"Belle, I sent Mom an e-mail. I told her you said hi and that you were having fun here." She told me, walking into my room also dressed with her keys in her hands. "I'm going to the grocery after we get done eating with Charlie, do you want to come with me and pick something out for yourself?" She asked me.

"Yeah, sure." I answered, walking to my door and her.

"You know I never asked you how you liked your first day." She left the question open. I walked downstairs with her following as we waited for Charlie.

"Well there isn't anything really going on. I was thinking I could buy my own car, so that I can go places I want to go, when you want to go somewhere else. I can dip into the funds from my parents." I told her thoughtfully. When I turned thirteen I told Charlie that I wanted to find my real parents and he'd pulled strings, using the information from the clothes that I'd been covered in from when I was a baby. It turns out that I'd forgotten about my clothes. He'd pulled my wallet and my license out of it and then fought to get everything that my 'mother' had turned over to me when it turned out my 'mother' had been MIA for the last thirteen years. My 'father' had been still unknown but with the bank account that I'd inherited I'd just pretended like I was okay with it.

It felt good to know that I could afford the things that Bella and I wanted. I made sure to use the money for Bella and Charlie to, all the time. I even bought Phil, my step-father, a car when his broke down right when Mom and he were on their honeymoon.

"That seems like a good idea." Bella muttered, a little deflated. I shut the door to the fridge that I'd been peering into. It held nothing but fish and a few condiments. A true bachelors fridge.

"Hey," I made her look at me. "Don't take it bad, I just want you to be able to do things without having to worry about lugging me places." I told her, smiling and ruffling her hair for good measure.

"No, no, I understand what you are saying." She said. "I'm just a little sad that you don't have a crush that I can tease you about." She laughed when my face went red. "Or _do _you?" She asked. I snorted and filtered through someone to say.

"Well, I don't mean to brag." I said, leaning up against the banister of the stairs that were right next to the door and buffing my fingernails against my jacket. "But I think Jasper Cullen has a thing for me." I said without thinking. Hey, he was staring at me in History, no matter if he was trying to mess with me or not. "He was staring at me in History today, though I have to say that it was no glare from Edward Cullen." I teased her. She scowled at me and I was beginning to think that she actually did have a thing for Edward Cullen already. No, it couldn't be…maybe they were mates…I heard that some pairs, if one is human, that they have the best smell for the vampire partner.

Well he can go to the bottom of the ocean and sit for all eternity before I let him change my Bella. Charlie came stomping down the stairs in a white shirt and gray jacket with jeans. I smiled at him and opened the door so that I could walk to the monster of a truck. "Anyways, I was thinking with the money I could probably get a pretty good car but I'm going to have to find a dealer around here." I said, keeping Bella upright absentmindedly when she almost fell when opening her door. I climbed in my own door, waving at Charlie as he drove down the road in his cruiser. It's a good thing I know where to go.

"All right, he's out of ear shot so were you serious about the Jasper Cullen thing?" She asked me and I blinked. Oh dear, she is obsessed with him. I hope they aren't mates because then I'd have to worry about stopping him from draining my sister.

"Well he was staring at me," I confessed. "But I'm positive it was just another, 'hey a new kid' stare and not an I-think-your-a-goddess stare." I confessed from then on we talk about all kind of things, and if we like our new friends. I make a lot of jokes about the rejection-triangle and Bella almost kills us when she laughs at it.

The diner and the grocery store was really nothing mentionable. All I can say is the diner was awkward because Charlie and I would talk but Bella didn't know enough about Charlie to really make conversation. She'd get better soon though when she's had time to adjust to socially awkward Charlie.

When we arrived home, I sent Bella off to call Mom. It wasn't expected of me I guess because I wasn't close to Renee, I never was and I probably never will forgive her for leaving in the middle of the night with Bella and me. I just can't believe that she took Charlie's two kids away from him and then only let him see us for a small time during the summer, it was shocking that someone would be that thoughtless to other people. I will probably never forgive her for that, it's just not in me to do it.

When we finally arrived back home at around nine, because I made Bella take me to the candy section and let me buy my food I claimed I was going to bed. As soon as I shut my door I was throwing my candy bag down and tugging off my jacket. I opened the window, curious as to how far down it was. Meh, only a story this should be fine. I let my cells change, grimacing at the pain.

See when I change I have to think of exactly the age I want to be, right down to the minute and from then on it's like a clock is in the back of my head telling me when I was approaching the day I would turn back into a vampire. When I turned back to human after being a vampire, it was easier because the timer kept going for me, so I'd know what to turn back to later.

I jumped from my window and landed softly on the ground. I ducked as I heard Charlie listening to a rerun of the game he missed when he took us out to eat. I peeked into the window, which was thankfully not on the same wall as mine but Charlie was watching the game and completely ignorant to my presence. So I started running at a normal speed for a vampire, so that I could go find some food. What lived around here anyways? My favorite was the whales in the ocean but that was probably because they were the first animal I ever drunk from.

I finally made it to latch myself onto a buck and I began drinking greedily from it until I heard a snap from a little ways away. It sounded just like the way I'd snapped the neck of the deer just seconds ago. I hurried to drink the rest of the deer, trying to disappear before they caught me. I was assuming that the Cullen's must be out drinking if I was correct about the sound, and I was believe me.

I left the deer where it was, mangling the bite mark a bit so it seemed like some bear bit into instead a human and I retreated. A deer would do me, because I was so old I didn't need much to sustain me for another week. I caught a glimpse of golden hair before I'm gone. It's not enough though, the vampire, whichever one it was, must have realized that I was here because they started chasing after me. I groaned to myself because it was just my luck that the only other vampires in the region would be hunting at the same time. I hadn't even thought about it.

"Hold on!" A voice, like little twinkles and sparkles said and I nearly plowed into the small brunette from school, Alice I think. I skidded to a stop, going to fast. I jumped over her, spinning so I wouldn't land on my back. I stood still facing the brunette who'd turned to see me. Then Jasper, appeared beside her. So he had been the one that had chased me.

I was suddenly glad that I looked nothing like my human self. When I was human my skin was tan and my hair wasn't as long as mine now. My hair when I was human was the same length as Bella's but now it came to my butt because when I was turned it was natural for the Queen to have long hair because you weren't supposed to get it cut. I loved it, but I loved it even more now because it made me sure they wouldn't recognize me. It's even better that when I turn vampire again my venom dissolves my contacts and so now my golden eyes are prominent.

I stood straight, hoping that they hadn't taken much notice of my clothes when I was a human because I hadn't bothered changing out of my clothes. "We aren't going to hurt you." Alice told me, trying to get me to stay. I forced my body to not go into a defensive crouch that my instincts screamed at me to do. My instincts were screaming 'DANGER YOU DON'T KNOW THESE VAMPIRES!' but I ignored it just this once.

"I find that hard to believe, when I'm being chased." I told them, my voice had changed as well, I felt like a whole new person when I changed into a vampire. I had an accent when I spoke with my vampire voice because I'd never had to bother with turning it off when I was a vampire. Everybody had known that I would have an accent since when I was a vampire I only spoke to other vampires unless I had been feeding.

"Jasper's just a little cautious." Alice told me, turning to glance/glare at Jasper. He just stared straight at me. For a moment some kind of perplexed emotion rolled off of him. "Jasper?" Alice asked. I shifted my weight from force of habit but the wave of emotion was gone.

"What is it that you wanted?" I asked Alice. I wanted to get back in case Charlie tried to check on me while I was sleeping. But it looked like I wasn't going to get that chance because I could hear the rest of the Cullen coven racing to where we stood, each cautious of the other.

"We were just curious." Alice said innocently and I raised both eyebrows.

"Curious." I said bluntly just as the rest of the coven made it to our place. I could see them all, they still wore their school clothes but there were two new ones. A blonde, who seemed older than the rest of them, and his mate who radiated motherly vibes, and she hadn't even spoken yet, had joined the ranks of the coven.

"Hello," I said, waving my fingers at them. They smiled and the blonde who was wearing slacks and a dress shirt, probably from where he worked stepped forward. Jessica did say he was a Doctor though so he'd probably shed the white coat and that was why he was dressed so fancy.

"Hello, we are the Cullen Family." The blonde politely introduced all of them. "I'm Carlisle, and this is Esme. My children, Jasper, Alice, Rosalie, Emmett, and Edward." I smiled at him. At least he was a polite leader and you could defiantly tell that he was the leader by the way he spoke. It was like he was warning me away from them and inviting me at the same time.

"I'm sorry if I offended you by hunting on your territory." I said, gesturing to the way I'd come from, where the dead deer still laid.

"No, it's quite all right, as long as it's animals." Carlisle said smiling.

"Thank you. I am Nefertiti," I told him, walking forward to shake his hand. He took it and I smiled at him. "I'm afraid I'm not from a family." I told them lightly as I moved a bit away so that I wasn't standing so close. "I'm a nomad I guess you could say. I was hoping though, if you would allow it, that I could stay around here for a bit." I asked.

They glanced at each other and Carlisle glanced at Edward but Edward's brow was furrowed. "I can't read her, it's just like a jumble of thoughts that I can't get a read on." He muttered. Everyone seemed to look from me to him while I was left in the dark. I must have looked confused because Esme supplied me with an answer.

"Edward reads peoples minds." She explained and I nodded, still smiling. On the inside I was glad he couldn't 'read' me. If he did then he'd know my secret already. I didn't want them to know yet because I just thought of another reason not to tell them. They would expect me to talk to them, or hang out with them. This would be okay but then I would have to abandon Bella, and that wasn't going to happen.

"Well, I'm afraid I have no idea why he can't read my mind. It seems to frustrate you." I noted lightly but I glanced at the sky for a moment, it was dark out when I came out here so I didn't know what time it was but I was anxious to get back.

"Yes, he's not used to not getting what he wants." Emmett teased him and Edward glared at him. Ahhh, he's the playful one in the family. I noticed the glare of Rosalie, the busty blonde when I looked at her mate. I didn't even bother glaring back at her because I felt no attraction to Emmett.

"I know the feeling, Aro was like that to." I commented and everyone looked back to me.

"Are you part of the Volturi, if it's not to bold to ask?" Carlisle asked me lightly but I could see that the question bothered him.

"No, no, I just spent a few years with them is all." I said, leaving out the whole, ruler part. They didn't need to know that because I don't know them. Then all of a sudden the small Alice kind of froze up and stared into space. We all watched her but I cleared my throat for an explanation but I didn't get it until she seemed to come back to herself. He smile, which had been cautious and polite, before was wide now and she came dancing over to bow to me. I blinked at her.

"My Queen!" She said, laughing before straightening and capturing me in a hug. "You're going to be a wonderful addition to the family!" She chimed. "And you have some sense of fashion. I'll have to get you some new clothes though." I stared at her, my eyes looking at her like people look at me when I tell them that my ambition was to rule the world as a reincarnation of Hitler. Yeah, just like the face you are making right now!

"What?" I said clueless to her sudden change of heart. She let go of me for a moment, still smiling.

"Alice?" Jasper asked and I was completely stunned by his voice. It sounded like southern honey dipped in a little American accent. I was glad that I couldn't flush in this form but the way his eyes flitted to mine reminded me about my theory that he could feel emotions and by the stunned, infatuated feeling coming from me and his glance I could now confirm that theory. What? I have a hair fetish _and _I have a thing for accents as long as they are understandable. This man just popped up on my map of attraction.

"She used to be a Pharaoh, that's why her names Nefertiti." Alice half explained. "But that's all I should tell you." She giggled and flitted back to her spot beside Jasper. I just stared at her for a second. What the hell? I want to ask but I restrain. I may cuss in my head but I try my best not to cuss out loud because it still rubs me the wrong way sometimes.

"Um…Can I have an explanation?" I asked quietly, shifting my weight out of habit.

"Alice sees the future. It's very subjective and it depends on your decisions." Esme explained again for me. I nodded, now understanding.

"Well, I'm glad that she sees us getting so close." I mentioned but I decided now would probably be the best time to get back home, so that my human body can have some rest. "But I'm afraid I have an appointment for something." I told them. Alice's face fell and not three seconds later I was swamped with a sudden guilty feeling. I refused to glare at Jasper, because it would give away that I knew it was him even though this was the first time I've ever met him.

"But," I gave in because I had planned to anyways. "I can give you my cell phone number," They all seemed pleasantly surprised that I had such a human object. "And you can call me sometime to meet." I compromised.

"Yay!" Alice said, jumping in place and clapping her hands. Edward actually chuckled and it reminded me that he probably saw the vision she had of the future. I guess if solemn, glaring Edward was now more comfortable in my presence then I was good to go. "I'll call you next time we play baseball, and you can come play with us." She said, staring in to space for a moment then lighting up again. I actually laughed at that. You know, I've never noticed but my laugh is still light and breathy, like you had to laugh when I was a Queen. I gave them the number and I already knew they would remember it.

"Well, then I look forward to it." I said, saluting and turning away from them to start off back towards my house. I was careful to make sure they weren't following me back to my house and I was happy to say that they seemed to trust me now, or at least they trusted Alice not to steer them wrong.

**I know that it's not edited well, and there are a few mistakes and bad sentence structures but I know you guys were waiting on it. I've got a bad case of writer's block right now. **

**I also closed the poll and Iron man won so I'm working on that and it's hard for me for reasons I think I've already stated. So please be patient with me. **

**Okay, question per update:**

**Which Avenger do you love the most?**

**I absolutely adore Iron man, as I'm sure you know. Thor is also gorgeous and I loved the movie. That scene in Thor where you see him shirtless and completely confused over the pants just made me go into a seizure. But Tony Stark is all style, flair, and everything that I want in a man. He's snarky and yet I picture him as a loving man when people are gone. **

**Anyways. I hope you like the story!**


	5. The Game

The next morning in the truck ride to school, I was tired as hell. I was sure I was going to pass out. Apparently the meeting had drained me more than just my energy. I was exhausted by the meeting. Bella was quiet, either sensing my tired vibes or she was still caught up on that Edward thing. Honestly, now that I'd 'seen' him I can kind of understand her. I like to think that if I were human I'd be obsessed with Jasper.

Hell, I'm getting there already. It's just something about that accent that tugged me in. I just felt like I could listen to it everyday and don't get me started on that _hair._

"I have a hair fetish." I told Bella solemnly. We've parked in the school parking lot but now we are waiting patiently for the bell to start the class. Bella has her novel out, mine is in my bag. She has those stupid earphones in and she has to fumble for a second to get them out and then ask me to repeat it.

"Well, yeah I could've told you that." She said, looking back in to her book.

"What?" I ask her, surprised.

"Well you stare at people's hair all the time. Hell, you touch their hair often enough." She says, jokingly and laughs when I make an offended face. "Oh, come on you can't just now be noticing can you? What finally made you realize?" She asked me. I'm hesitant to answer because the Cullens have just pulled up. Strangely though not in the Volvo. They are instead in a beautiful red corvette and a monster jeep. I'm in love with the car in an instant. But seeing as how Rosalie is driving I can guess that the corvette is off limits to me. My eyes catch sight of Jasper's hair and I couldn't help but sigh as the wind blows the strands around.

"I have fallen in love with his hair." I told her solemnly. She looks to where I'm looking and laughs loudly. I swat her arm and look away from Jasper so that I can pout at her.

"So, let me get this right. You are in love with Jasper Cullen's _hair._" She asked, incredulous. I smiled crookedly, just the way that she likes it because my sister is funny like that.

"Well, I'm sorry that you find that funny but I wish I could save that hair. Do you know most people don't grow their hair like that anymore? It's always chopped off or in that weird swishy fashion that so few people can own." I sighed dramatically, putting a hand over my heart and looking off into space. She laughs some more and I can't help but just to be pleased that I got her to laugh so much. She's been so heartbroken since we first came here. Granted that was only two days ago.

"Funny I thought you were in love with him." She made a kissy face and I snorted.

"Please, I am not in love with someone I've never talked to. What am I, Jessica?" I asked her, and just to be an ass I pushed out my chest and ass. She laughs some more, almost falling to the ground. She probably would had I not caught her. I chuckle and glance at the stairs, where I'd last seen Jessica, just to make sure she was still there and not here but my eyes instead catch Jasper's. I smiled at him without thinking and I catch the amused smile before he looks away and keeps walking with his sister. I realized at once that he just heard all of that conversation.

Hell, there was no way I was telling them now. The embarrassment must have been rolling off of me in waves. But damn his smile was pretty, it had just the right amount of cute and adorable but also the needed hint of sexiness. Sigh, I'd screw that guy right there. I think anyone would but I'd tap that. I just want it known that I am in no way saying that I want to run off and declare my undying love but that man is like walking sex for me.

Together, when the bell finally rings I force myself to say goodbye to Bella when we split ways to go to class. I chatted with Angela through first period, and even joked around with the teacher about Mike Newton, who was one of her worst students apparently. And then I saw my first Cullen of the day. Or the first time I'd been closer to them anyways.

Alice Cullen was already in the room when I got there and I refused to let my eyes look at her for more than a glance but the glance was enough because she was smiling widely at me. I sat down, hesitantly at my seat from yesterday but she stood up and walked over to me. It went quiet, the other three students looking on speechless as one of the Cullens actually made contact with another student outside of their family.

"Hi," She said. I blinked, dropping the book I had retrieved from my bag on my desk. "I'm Alice Cullen." She said, sticking out her small hand. I shoke her hand, not even fazed by her cold skin and that seemed to confirm whatever she had been thinking because she smiled wider at me and winked at me. Oh, shit.

"Um, I'm Isabelle but you can call me Belle." I told her, on edge. Did she know? She was a future seer so she might have seen me change. Oh, crap I didn't think about that last night. Had she told her family? Did Edward know? Would he tell Bella? More importantly did Jasper know? That would make the comment about his hair even more embarrassing.

"Would you like to sit beside me?" She asked me, gesturing to where she had all of her stuff neatly arranged on the desk in the back. I juggled the options with myself but finally I just thought, to hell with it, and picked up my stuff.

"Sure." I answered, moving back to sit in the seat right beside hers to the left, still beside a window and gorgeous. We both sat down as the bell rang and I was surprised when she started talking again. I guess I just assumed she wanted to keep me close so that she could keep a look out on me but apparently she actually wanted to talk to me.

"So you're from Arizona right? What's it like out there?" She asked me, turning sideways to talk to me. I turned as well, my purple converse of the day scratching on the floor a little.

"It's hot and humid. The sun's always beating down on you and the scenery's lacking." I bluntly told her. Okay so I hadn't liked it. Phoenix just reminded me to much of Egypt and I really didn't want to be reminded of Egypt because then I'd be reminded of my past life and then I'd get thirsty for blood just thinking about it.

"So I'm guessing you didn't like it?" Alice asked, laughing with me. My laugh was cautious but hers was just as beautiful as most of her kind is. Our kind I guess. It's hard to remember that some times when I'm in human form. I don't answer though because the teacher has started speaking.

We don't talk for the rest of the period but for the rest of the week it's the same thing. She asks me questions about myself and I answer them as honestly as I can. It made me feel weird that she was asking me questions but I'm certain now that she knows. There was no doubt about it. What I doubted though was her telling the others. They didn't seem to know about it. I wasn't sure about Edward though, because he wasn't there the entire week, and it was driving my sister crazy. What I did know was that Jasper didn't know, because he sat peacefully by me. At least he'd stopped his mood changes on me.

I was so used to it that it surprised me that one night while I was lying on my bed finishing the last of my outline for my art project I received a text from one Alice Cullen. It read, 'There's a storm coming. We can play baseball tonight, in ten minutes if you would like to come. xAliceCullenx.' I swear I stared at that phone for minutes. I jumped when I got another text. 'If you don't hurry up, you'll be late. xAliceCullenx'

I took her advice and poked my head in Bella's room to tell her goodnight. Charlie had stopped checking in on us as we slept after I'd screamed at him for seeing me in just a bra and pajama pants. I changed into different clothes so there would be no way that they would recognize me. I kept my cartouche necklaces on though, because I never took them off. I also kept my class ring on which had been transferred to Forks and changed from 'Phoenix High' to 'Forks High' per my called in request.

It had an orange stone in it, my birth stone actually.

I climbed out of my window, making sure to close it again so that the rain didn't get into my room while I was gone. I'd put my hair in a long, tightly wound, braid down my back because as soon as I'd made the painful switch in bodies I'd realized it would have been flying everywhere during the game. Alice took a minute to text me some vague directions and explained what it looked like. Basically the directions came down to find our scent and track it to the meadow.

She was right, as I'm starting to see is something that's going to be happening a lot. I found the scent and followed it down a road that was almost overgrown with trees and grass. I followed the multiple scents of the Cullen Coven until I slowed to a sluggish jog just as I broke the tree line into the Cullens makeshift baseball field. It was nothing special, just a field that was cleared of all trees and they'd obviously been playing the game a lot because they'd run line between the bases.

They were all gathered together talking amongst themselves and I jogged at vampire speed to make it the rest of the way there. I stepped in front of Alice, because I wasn't familiar with any of the others. "All right, what's my time?" I asked her, grinning.

"You are half a minute early." She chimed, not even asking me what I was talking about. She held up a baseball outfit, obviously custom. It was grey with my name, Nefertiti written on it. I was a little sad with the name, since after all I don't go by that anymore. It was given to me when I married into the Pharaoh's line or royalty. You don't have a name until you marry when you are royalty you are just called a princess, or that was when I was a foreign princess.

"Oh, you don't like it?" She asked, frowning. I felt another foreign emotions and I glanced at Jasper, who was staring at me, smirking.

"No, no I do love it. It's just been awhile since I've been called Nefertiti." I said brighty. I took the shirt from her, forgoing the pants so I could wear them next time. I took the jacket I had been wearing off so that I could pull the button up on over it. As soon as I had it on she also held up a cap with a C on it, grey to match my baseball outfit. I laughed and tucked it on, pulling the braid through the loop in the back. I spun in place.

"All right, how does it look?" I asked her.

"Just like I saw it would!" She said brightly, tugging a piece of hair out of my face for me. "Now, we want you to be on the girls team, you can take the place of Esme. She doesn't like to play, she just likes to play umpire." Alice explained to me. I smiled over at Esme who had glanced over at the mention of her name.

"She thinks we cheat." Emmett commented playfully.

"I know you cheat." Esme shot right back, smiling. I lightly swatted Alice's hands away because she was tugging on the shirt, trying to even it out on my shoulders.

"Okay, but someone needs to tell me the rules." I said. "I've never played before." I mentioned. Jasper handed me the bat in his hand and I thought it strange that he seemed to go out of his way to make sure our hands touched. Damn, I'd be glad I didn't blush if he couldn't feel my emotions. I took the bat though and twirled it lightly in my hands.

"You've never played?" Emmett asked like I'd just kicked him. I shook my head. "Not even when you were human?" He asked, still incredulous.

"Emmett!" Esme scowled and surprisingly Rosalie hit cracked him loudly upside the head.

"Nope." I said, trying to keep it light. I didn't fancy telling them that story as no one knew it and I was planning to keep it that way. "See, funny thing kiddo, they don't have that in Ancient Egypt." I teased. I swung the bat out once and smiled brightly when it made the appropriate sound.

"Whoa…" Emmett muttered. Yeah, that's right I may be small but I'm older than you.

"Yep, so you'd best learn to respect your elders." I told him, pointing my bat at him.

"And if I don't." Emmett challenged.

"Then I'm going to kick your as at baseball." I accepted the challenge to a lot of groaning. Emmett had this funny look on his face then he looked like the Chesire cat that'd just caught the mouse. "_If _someone can tell me how to play." I added on. Jasper stood next to me, and strangely Alice walked to Carlisle, Edward, and Esme in their own conversation.

"It's easy. You hit the ball with the bat and then you run around the bases. You don't let anyone touch you with the ball once they've caught it and you stay on base…" Jasper explained in his quiet voice. I tried to drop the feeling I got when he spoke but it was hard to do. I did, fleetingly notice that he had a bunch of vampire bites on his arms, and around his neck they were heavy but I didn't linger on them. They didn't bother me at all and I felt no need to ask where he got them, because I didn't want him to ask me about my past.

"So the objective is to get back to the home base without getting out." I concluded. Jasper nodded and smiled at me again. Wow. You know I've never been dazzled by another vampire before but when he smiles like that I feel like melting into a little Belle puddle at his feet. Please insert dramatic sigh, stupid female hormones. They must be in overdrive now that I've found someone attractive. "All right, I've got it down." I announced to the waiting Cullens. Alice's eyes went out of focus for a moment before smiling pleasantly, waiting. Then I heard a crack of thunder and then a gorgeous lightning bolt struck the earth. I wish I could explain to you how beautiful it is to watch lightning strike the earth when you could see it so clearly, you would probably be jealous and I wouldn't blame you.

Edward walked up to the pitchers plate; he was going to be the pitcher for this game. Apparently they switched it up every now and again. Rosalie was going up to bat first. It was decided that Carlisle and Esme would share the umpire position with their different teams so Carlisle was crouching down behind the home plate. I stood back next to Esme as we waited for our turns so I could watch it first hand. Edward had the ball in his hand and he waited some time. It came to me that he was using his gift to wait until Rosealie was unfocused. He must have decided that she was because he pulled back and swung his arm forward, shooting what I think Jasper said was a 'curve' ball at her.

It didn't stop her though because she slung the bat and it cracked against the ball. At least I knew what they needed the storm for. I'm just afraid I'll break their bat or something. Rosalie automatically went speeding off, dropping the bat to the ground. I watched as Jasper went speeding into the forest to go retrieve the ball. Luckily for me I could see through the trees. He didn't catch it but he did manage to pick it up and throw it back to Edward before Rosalie could try for second base.

It was my turn now and I picked up the bat for a moment, making sure to get the dirt off the bat. Just to be playful I pointed it at Emmett, to make sure it was coming at him. I stepped up to the plate, copying the stance that Rosalie had used. Since Edward had reported on our first meeting that he couldn't really read my thoughts I had to stay sharp, ready for it.

He didn't wait as long as he did with Rosalie but I hit it out of the park. I was surprised that it actually did head Emmett's way but I didn't pause to watch it as I started running around the plates. I couldn't help that nagging little voice in the back of my head that was telling me not to run, that it was a disgrace to the earth but I only kept going. Rosalie hit home plate as the Emmett fumbled for the ball some where in the tree line. I made it to third base before the ball was back into Edward's hand. I cheered out loud, and so did Esme, Alice, and Rosalie. You know, I'm starting to think she doesn't hate me despite the glare from when we first met.

I laughed and clapped as Emmett scowled at us. Rosalie yelled out to him, "Come on baby it's just a game." She teased him. He growled and I twitched slightly. It was only a small flashback, but it happened. I could remember when Tut growled at me. I shook that out of my subconscious, blinking it away. Esme was coming up to bat now and I watched her, waiting. As soon as her bad hit the ball I zoomed off after home plate. Jasper had already caught the ball, it hadn't made it far but it made an awful crack on his hand. I ran as fast as I could. He got close but I swirled in between his legs at the last moment and touched base with my leg.

There was a stunned silence, of which I was greatly apart of. Did I just spin between Jasper's legs? "Damn, I didn't know I was still that flexible." I commented thoughtlessly. Emmett's laughter was like a bomb going off it was so loud as he dropped to his knees to pound the ground, that's how hard he was laughing. Everyone was laughing, even Carlisle who was always in control of himself was laughing. I laughed right beside them but I was swept up into another puddle of radioactive venom because Jasper's laugh, not to mention his face, just seemed right. It was like I was made to hear him laugh.

Alice hit next, getting to third base all by hitting it over Edward and into the trees a pretty good bit. She was strong for a midget, got to admit that.

Rosalie was up to bat after that, but she was tagged by Edward because she hit it right at him and he caught it. Alice made it through them though and I cheered for Alice. Rosalie groaned though, mad to have gotten out and headed back to stand beside me but I tentatively clapped her on the shoulder, a plan already forming in my head. "Don't worry I'll get him back." I told her and she looked at me confused. I took the bat up and gripped it as I walked to the plate. The first time I'd gripped it, I had gripped it right, one hand at the top another at the bottom. This time I made sure both were on the bottom. When he finally threw the ball, he took sometime trying gaining some courage I like to think after that remark, I swung the bat, aiming _just _right. The ball went flying over them again but so did the bat.

I ran to the first base, but didn't miss it as the bat cracked right into Edward's face. He fell back to the ground as a resounding crack, covered by a crack of thunder, made its way through the air. I made a home run as all of the boy's were left howling with laughter at Edward's blunder. He got up, for a moment he was scowling but his face cracked into a smile. I could tell why, Jasper was letting out enough laughing juice to have us all experiencing heart attacks, if we were humans that is.

"Oh, my God." Emmett called out, clutching his stomach. I wasn't far behind because I was pounding the earth with one fist.

"Jasper!" Edward called out, laughing as well. Jasper took a moment to suck the emotion back in and I lay there, face down for a moment to enjoy the unneeded breath before hopping up.

"Well, I do say that was a bit of fun." I said a mock-solemn face to match the Fake-British accent of mine. There was another giggle from Alice but Esme stepped up to the plate again. "What's the score again?" I asked before they started. "Girls are what, Emmett?" I called out.

"Three and Two." He growled out and again the growl reminded me of a memory, this one just a playful growl from Tut. Wow, I hadn't thought I'd get flashbacks. This could be a side effect that was uncontrollable, but I was having too much fun. I hadn't had this much fun in so long that I could honestly believe that the flashbacks were happening. I mean, it was bound to happen.

Esme was up next. She made it to first base and Alice, Rosalie, and I cheered her on. Alice though got out, by Emmett, and I watched as the other two girls deflated. Oh! That's right, three outs and we switch teams.

"Okay, where do I go?" I asked Rosalie, the closest to me.

"You can stand in right field, that's where most of Edward's go. Watch out though, they might aim at you because you don't know the game well." She warned me. I gave her a thumbs up and walked to the right field, making up for my running. I hummed a song for a moment then realized I was humming along to Bella's ringtome, oh! I pulled the phone out of my pants, smiling sheepishly at the group of vampires because they were all looking at me.

"Sorry," I told them. I read the text silently. 'You aren't in ur room. Where r u? Do I need to tell Charlie? xSisterx'. I grimaced and texted her back. 'Sorry, out exploring keep quiet! I promise not doing illegal things ;D. If u tell him, I'll tell him about ur crush on Eddie! xBelle' I waited a second for her to text me back.

'I call foul play! But I'll leave u alone. Be safe out in this weather. xBella' I found it amusing that she would use that expression now. I tucked the phone away making sure to silence it first before looking at them. "Sorry, with Alice's short warning, I didn't have time to explain where I was going." I apologized. They all nodded good naturedly.

"After a few years, you learn to get used to her short noticed warnings." Jasper joked. Alice responded by glaring at him. They quickly forgot about my phone going off and focused on the game again. I got to admit, this is something I enjoyed. I felt welcome with the Cullens and they never excluded me since I got here. It was…nice.

Alice was pitching, and I was highly amused. She probably knew if they were going to hit it. Now that I think about it, she probably knew the outcome of this game! I rolled my eyes but then I thought of something else. You know, this is the first time I've seen Edward all week! Eh, I won't bug him about it, plus it'll give away that I knew them outside of this.

I was right, Alice pitched the ball with perfect timing, and Rosalie caught it when Carlisle hit it. Sadly Carlisle got to first base. Esme was on base shift, ready to tag the boys, but Carlisle had been safe on first base when she'd caught it.

Edward was up to bat next. Alice and he had a stare down, which ended with Edward frowning and Alice smirking. Well I guess that's good for us. Alice pulled back and pitched it forward and Edward's bat collided. I squeaked as it came towards me. I panicked for a moment but sucked it in and jumped high, barely catching it with the tips of my fingers. I threw it at Alice before my feet touched the ground and she tagged Edward out but Carlisle made it to third base. You know I've never liked sports that much but this was really fun.

"Way to go Nefertiti!" Esme called back to me.

"Thank you!" I told her. We went back to the game when Emmett came up to plate. He flexed his muscles and pointed the bat at me, mocking my earlier movement. I stuck my tongue out at him and crooked a finger at him 'bring it on' motion being the one. He growled, but thankfully no flashbacks occurred. Alice went silent for a moment before throwing a weird under the leg flash something-in-other kind of ball. Emmett hit it, despite her fancy throw. I ran after the ball as it came chasing my way again. This time I didn't jump, not bothering because it was too high from his strength. Instead I raced after it.

I scooped it up as soon as it touched the ground and sent it back to Alice. Carlisle had made it and Emmett took his spot at third base. "You got lucky!" I shouted out at Emmett. His booming laughter filled the air again.

Jasper walked up to the plate next. He did some twirl thing, but it looked awesome. It was weird; he twirled it then caught then twirled it back to the right position. Note to self: Take lessons from Jasper on bat twirling. He bent down and I took a peek at his ass. You know…I was never an ass person but I could try it if he keeps putting it out there to look at for me. I sighed out a little, soft enough they didn't hear it but, hey that's a bonus for me, right?

I watched as he cracked the ball sending it flying Rosalie's way. She chased after it, and we waited for it to be thrown back. Emmett crossed the home run plate just in time before the ball was back in Alice's hand again. Jasper hit the third base. I clapped my hands together as Carlisle stepped up again. He hit it but this time Rosalie caught it, and threw it to Esme at home run and she got Jasper. I was getting excited. They said that they only play one round, where each team gets a term. We were winning to! Carlisle got to first base, but at least Jasper hadn't gotten another score.

I laughed and whopped along with the other girls as we got close to winning. One more out, and we would win! Jasper snorted and walked away peacefully, and I was happy to watch his ass as he walked. "Nefertiti! Focus!" Alice called back and I moved my eyes to the sky as fast as possible so no one could tell I was looking at Jasper. I was smirking though, so that was probably giving me away.

"My bad, you know…uh…" I searched for something to say before I got it. "You know Mars is bright to night!" I chimed, quoting a centaur off of Harry Potter. Alice laughed, while the others didn't seem to get it, they just took it in stride. I winked at her and got prepared for the next throw. It was Edward this time and I could see him playfully glaring at me. Uh-oh someone's a little revengeful! And I'm glad I noticed that because he hit it right at me. I squealed and caught it as it hit my stomach. I quickly threw it to Alice who tagged both Carlisle and Edward. I whopped and ran in with the other girls to cheer together even though that hit to my stomach really hurt it was gone soon, like all wounds for us.

"Yes! It's about time we bet those boys!" Rosalie shouted. Alice and her were dancing, and Esme was laughingly being tugged into it. I laughed as well. "Their heads were big enough to way even vampires down!" She exclaimed and I was tugged in by her hand to victory dance with them. I stood there for a moment and they looked at me.

"Uhh…." I made a face before shrugging and did a weir little dance, the Dougie. Everyone started laughing at my limbs and I stopped to fake-scowl at them. The guys had joined us and they had laughed to until they realized my scowl was real. It wasn't but they thought it was. I broke out into a smile though and did two flips, the last one pushing off the ground do some fancy curls in the air, landing on my feet again, right where I started. The girls clapped, and the boys did to.

"That was wonderful, thank you guys for inviting me!" I thanked them, hugging the over excited Alice as she through her arms around me.

"Not bad, for an amateur." Emmet commented to me, his arm around Rosalie. I chuckled.

"Hey, this amateur just kicked your butt!" I joked again. The rain that had been coming down in sheets over the Forks area had cleared up a little and we'd ended the game just in time because there was barely any thunder and lightening.

"But I bet I got beat you the second time." Emmett challenged. I glanced to the sky, where it was getting light out at the corners. I was already going to be tired, with no sleep tonight but I was probably going to be sore today to.

"Emmett, you know we can't." Esme told him, answering for me. He instantly deflated but I punched his shoulder.

"Don't worry, the next time there's a storm you can have another crack at it." I offered. He grinned and it was absolutely ferial. I put both hands on his shoulder. I saw Rosalie tense for a second. "Emmett," I said slowly. "You have a problem." I announced taking him away to gesture. "I think, that maybe you should see a doctor." I told him, my face serious but everyone was laughing. I sighed lightly, ruffling my hair. It was still in a braid but some of it was peeking out of the braid.

"Would you like to come back to our house, for some cleaning up?" Esme offered and I smiled sadly at her.

"Sorry, I've got to go now, but make sure to text me later and I might come see your house." I offered in return for her sad face.

"Oh, okay." She muttered, deflating a bit. Carlisle put his hand in the small of her back.

"We would love for you to come over some time." Carlisle told me.

"And I will keep you to that." I told him, pointing. I felt my pocket buzz from vibrating. I tugged it out of my jeans glancing at the screen. 'Better come home now or you'll have to deal with Charlie finding out! xBella.' I screwed up my face at the mere thought of that. I pushed it back into my pocket. "That's my jailer, got to go now or I'm going to be late." I told them skipping a little backwards.

"Bye!" "Good-bye, Nefertiti!" "You owe me a game!" They all called out to me as I turned and ran. I took one last glance at the golden hair on Jasper's hair, I'm beginning to think that I really was in love with that hair, before I picked up the baseball pants and booked it back to the house.


	6. The Wreck

I was lucky that no one was out and about as I climbed back into my window. I changed into pajamas before I changed myself back into a human, I put the contacts in, you can sleep in them you know, and I lay down on my bed. I had an hour before the alarm went off. I was just thankful that I made it back in time for that. I was asleep at once.

It seemed like I was asleep for seconds before the alarm went off. I groaned pitifully and shut it off, dragging myself through my morning routine. I barely managed to grunt a hello to Bella on my way to the showers. She looked kind of amused, but also mad. If only I had enough strength to say something. I settled for taking an ice cold shower to wake myself up. When I got out and pulled on some clothes, I could see the bags under my eyes were really prominent. Yep, sleeping in class today!

I tugged on a pair of blue jeans and a green pair of converse that matched my shirt with the Joker on it. I grunted again when I tromped down the stairs, dragging my back pack behind me, my jacket hanging on the knobs by the doors. I tugged a toaster strudel out of the fridge and right into the toaster on the counter. I waited and waited, ignoring the noise Bella was making while she chomped on her cereal.

I tugged my strudel out of its cage and set it on a plate so that I could pour on a heap of frosting. There was only one thing that could wake me up for the day though – Nugrape. I grabbed a large, mega-bottle that they only sold online, if you knew where to buy. I started chugging it, sneaking in bites of strudel.

"Wow, if you don't watch what you're doing your going to choke." Bella said, putting her bowl away. I flashed a grin, capping the rest of the drink and smashing the rest of the strudel in my mouth.

"Le FFg sdfd." I tried to say.

"Swallow then speak." She ordered, grabbing her own bag and coat. I pulled on my jacket and my mittens before pulling on the backpack.

"I said, I don't care." I repeated, closing the door behind me. "Any reprieve from this is better. There is no way I'm going to be able to pay attention in class. Bella I'm begging you, shot me now!" I exclaimed. I put the drink in my backpack, not wanting to carry it but while I was zipping my bag up, Bella tripped on some of the ice. Charlie, which I hadn't noticed had just pulled up in Bella's truck, hurried over to her. I helped Charlie to pull her up.

"Are you okay, Bella?" Charlie asked. I eyed the ice for a moment feeling a sudden since of foreboding. I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have gone out last night. I feel like I'm going to need my vampire senses. Oh well, if I'm lucky the feeling will just be Bella tripping all day.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good." Bella was way too used to it not to be. "Ice just doesn't help us uncoordinated." She laughed it off and I wiped some of the dirt and water off of her backside from where it hit the ground.

"Yeah, uh that's why I had some new tires put on the truck." Charlie explained his absence to us. I looked at the tires, getting closer to see these crisscrossed chains on the tires, yeah they probably would help us stay on the road but really Bella was a good driver. "Old ones were getting pretty bald."

"I think just to be safe, that I should drive!" I announced. Bella snorted but agreed and dropped the keys into my hands. She knew just as well as I did that I just wanted to drive. "Oh, I'm thinking about going and picking out a car this afternoon, so I may be a little late getting home." I told Charlie. He understood why I wanted my own car and he'd sheepishly admitted that he had just wanted to win Bella over with the car. I hadn't even been hurt in the least because I understood. Bella had stopped wanting to come to his house a few years ago. I was just happy they were getting along better now.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" Charlie asked me. I wanted to go to Seattle to pick out a car because I looked on the website and they said that there were a lot of, expensive, but very awesome cars there. Of course, I'd have to be careful since there will be a lot of mud here, and it does hail here sometimes. But Charlie's got a shed that he never uses outback that he said he'd clear it out for me. Charlie's just a little worried that I'll run into trouble, because I've go no company but I quickly shot him down.

"No that's all right Dad, I swear I'm going to be fine. No one ever gets killed at a car dealership." I joked lightly. Bella elbowed me.

"Not something to joke about." She muttered to me sideways.

"Oh, right sorry." I told her.

"Okay." Dad took it though I could still see a lot of reluctance. "If you need me for anything, call me on my cell. I'm going to be late for dinner as well. I gotta head down to Mason County." He told Bella the last part, because it was her turn to cook. We took shifts. I wasn't the best cook but I liked to give Bella a few days off sometimes. Sure my culinary skills consisted of reading the directions but at least I could make Fettuccine Alfredo! That was absolutely my favorite meal.

"What?" I asked Charlie. "Why would you need to go down there?" I asked him, curious.

"Security guard at the Grisham Mill got killed by some kind of animal." Charlie answered me, walking to his cruiser.

"An animal?" Bella asked. I'd already started getting in the car but I was thinking. Grisham Mill was a big place, and the security guards probably had guns so what kind of animal could have gotten him?

"You're not in Phoenix anymore, girls." Charlie said, a little more familiar with Bella than when we first came here. I was proud of him; he was really making an effort. "Anyway, I figured I'd lend them a hand."

"Be careful." I blurted out, right when Bella did. We glanced at each other, both already in the cab of the truck. I smiled at her and then at Charlie who was looking kind of reminiscent. I guess he was thinking about when we were younger and we'd say things at the same time. I felt another spike of sympathy for Daddy.

"Always am." He said, kind of choked up. He bent down to get in the car to make a hurried escape but Bella stopped him.

"Hey, Dad," She called. He paused. "Thanks for the tires." He didn't know how to respond.

"Uh, Yeah." He said, starting his cruiser and pulling out, waving one last time at us. I chuckled and started the monster truck and it roared to life. I flushed a little in embarrassment but all of the neighbors were used to it by now and didn't even turn their heads to look at us. Though I did wave at Ms. Perry at the end of the drive. She was a cute little old lady who had no family that came and saw her. She got really lonely and last week I took time to chat with her.

It only took us a few minutes to get to school, seeing as everything was pretty much on the main road; it never took us to long to get to school, no more than fifteen minutes if we really didn't want to go. I was doing okay, considering I didn't have any energy at all.

I parked in our usual spot, right next to where Tyler would park and then if Bella and I felt like talking we would go hang out with them. Sometimes we didn't, just because Mike was there, or because Jessica was being jealous the day before. It happens more often then you think.

Classes went how I thought they would, with me trying not to kill anyone for being to loud. Most of the teachers let me sleep through their class, just because I was usually so active and had such good grades in there.

Alice seemed to understand, and she smirked at me when I first came in. She does that whenever I do something that confirms what she thought. I sat down beside her and she was still smirking. "Oh shut up, Alice." I said playfully. She giggled at me.

"Its okay, Ms. Juilane won't wake you." She told me. I didn't question it or comment. I just sat my backpack on the desk and laid my head down to go to sleep. That's how every class of mine went until I got to lunch.

I groaned as I sat at the table, because I was just so tired and I felt hot and sweaty.

"Belle, are you sure you're okay?" Bella asked me again. Mike took that moment to zoom in on our conversation, bringing everyone's attention on my not feeling well. I was fine, because I don't get sick even in human form, but that didn't mean I had to feel jolly everyday of my life.

"Yes, yes, it's true." I told them solemnly. "Even the great Isabelle Swan has one of those tired days. I've slept in all of my classes today and I plan to keep that going." I told them, stabbing the little jell-o cup in front of me. I hunted last night, on the way back when I ran into a pack of deer, so I was good there, but I just couldn't bring myself to eat any of this nasty food. The lunch ladies must be crazy if they think I'm going near a burrito that they made.

"That's hard to believe." A voice said from behind us. My eyebrows raised and I turned to see Alice Cullen standing there. Her sister was standing behind her, glaring at me hatefully. It contrasted greatly with the happy Rosalie that I'd won the game with last night. Oh, right, I'm just a human right now. "You left this in French class." Alice handed me a notebook, that I was sure had been in my bag.

"Thanks, Alice." I told her, taking the notebook from her. "You have a good day, okay? You to Rosalie." I commented lightly.

"Thank you." Alice said, tugging Rosalie away from me. I turned back to my table, opening the notebook. Right at the end were all of the notes that I should have been taking for French class for the test tomorrow. I smiled at her retreating back and she turned to wink at me.

"Whoa…" Jessica muttered, staring at me in awe.

"What?" I asked. "I just have a class with her, that's all." I dismissed the awe in her voice so that I could stuff the notebook away and push my tray away, so that I could trade eating for sleeping. Maybe I could eat in Seattle.

"Yeah, but I don't know what you did to Rosalie but she really seems to hate you." Angela commented on the glare instead of Alice's friendliness.

"Yeah, well have you ever thought that maybe she doesn't want an outsider to hurt her family?" I commented and Angela seemed surprised at my biting comment. "Sorry, I just didn't get any sleep last night, at all." I sighed and picked up my bag as the bell rang for the next class.

"I'll see you guys later." I told them and walked off.

The rest of the day went fine; I even made it through sitting next to Jasper without glancing at him, his hair, or his ass. Which let me tell you was only because I was sleeping through that period to. I walked out to the truck dismally, walking by the Cullens without a thought. Huh, I'm feeling a little better now. All of that sleeping was finally helping. I ruffled my hair, which I hadn't really done anything with today. I'd strung it up in a ponytail and had said to hell with it this morning.

I caught up with Bella, right before she made it to her truck. "Hey, Bella, can you do me a favor?" I asked her brightly. Maybe if I was nice enough she would do it. "Can you go to the office and tell them that I left my jacket in the gym?" I asked her. She snorted but stopped.

"All right but you have to stop calling my truck a monster in return." She bargained. I groaned.

"All right, all right." I exasperated. "Even though the thing won't go over fifty-five, and no matter how hard you try and wipe it off, it'll be rusted forever, I will stop calling it a monster." I told her. She stuck out her mitted hand, and I shook it in a deal. I watched her go for a moment, she was taking her sweet time but I headed on to the truck. Bella was coming with me to Seattle, we decided so that when I bought the car I wanted she could take her truck back with her to the house.

I slammed my backpack down on the hood of the car and began to open the door when I heard a loud screech. I turned around, confused, to see Tyler's van skidding at me. I screamed and out of instinct, I ducked down into a ball. I couldn't change, even though my cells were begging me to, but I could try the basics. The smaller the target the less likely it would hit me. I was shocked though when I felt a pair of arms close around my huddled form. I looked up just in time to see Jasper curl around me and protect me from the van.

I watched as his hand stuck out, crushing the door to the car. My head cracked against the side of Bella's truck with the brunt of the attack of the van. Jasper's eyes were wide, and he slowly turned his head to look at me. I looked into his eyes, a deep unforgiving black from the adrenaline. I could see my vision going out of focus.

"Belle!" Bella's voice was screaming and I could hear the herd of people coming to check on what they probably thought was just me. Jasper uncurled himself from me, our eyes still connected until he jumped out from between the two cars, speeding faster than the human eyes can see so that the humans would still be unaware. I was tingling, not just from adrenaline but also from the feel of Jasper curled around me. It felt so right and our bodies had clicked. He was taller than me but I had fit to him just so perfectly.

I shook my head just as Bella appeared around the side. "Belle! Someone call 911!" She screamed out. I tentatively touched the back of my head and pulled it back but it seemed there was only a knot forming.

"Belle, I'm so sorry, I panicked." Tyler said, sticking his head out of the window and it had a little blood on it. I stopped breathing for a second to gain a bit of control over myself. I was oddly glad that Jasper left, not just so that he could keep his cover but also so he wouldn't have to deal with the scent of Tyler's blood. He'd obviously left before he had to deal with it.

I heard the ambulance come swooping in and I groaned. "Someone help get Tyler out of the car, I'm fine for now." I ordered, trying to get the mangled door open. It came open with a little tugging from my human muscles. Mike, who was right there, helped me to drag him out but quickly took all of his weight. He wasn't hurt anywhere else but at his head that I could see but he seemed to have lost his motor skills because he was stumbling a little.

I glanced around, right before the paramedics ushered me into the ambulance with Tyler, the Cullens, all but Jasper were staring at me, even little Alice, looked like stone, but Rosalie was glaring with even more hatred. I winced and turned away though when one of the gloved fingers of the admittedly good-looking paramedic's hand touched the bump on the back of my head.

Bella was fighting to get into the ambulance with me. "Wait! Wait! She's my sister!" I told him, tugging her into the car with me. Everything kind of blurred, I remember being caught in the arms of Bella as she held me still so the paramedics could work on me.

"Ms. Swan we need you to stay conscious for us." The paramedic told me, unsheathing a needle.

"Oh, hell no!" I screeched. "You are not sticking that damn thing anywhere the fuck near me!" I told him, pushing away from him, farther down the bench. "I will jump out this damn door before I let you touch me with that!" His face turned weary because we were already speeding to the hospital

"All right, all right." He muttered. I didn't hate needles, that wasn't the point. What the point was is that they would take my blood and instead of finding human blood they'd find animal blood or venom, depending how long it had been since I fed. I didn't like them finding either in there so I demanded that no blood be taken from me or anything pumped into my system. Stuff like medicine was just burnt right up the moment it entered my system.

The paramedic instead turned to Tyler, who was still hysterical and started working on him. I took that moment let out a sigh of relief and to relax into Bella.

We were at the hospital in no time, Bella trying to keep me awake which was a pretty hard job because I already didn't have a lot of sleep. "Well," I drawled when they'd situated us in a room with Tyler, whose parents were there having been called. "I guess I'm not getting that car today after all." I noted.

"Of course." Bella bluntly said. "Of course you would be trying to make a joke out of this after you almost got killed. If it wasn't for Jasper…" She quieted down, looking at the nurses who were checking on Tyler now that they'd fussed over me. "If it wasn't for Jasper being there you'd be dead." She muttered, watching my reaction.

I stayed still for a second, panicking. "I don't know what you're talking about." I finally muttered, looking down at my hands. She only got fiercer.

"Oh come on, you can't be serious. You've noticed it I know you have! All of the Cullens are strange. They don't eat, they're eyes, and they're pale. I saw Jasper. He was standing with his family and then all of a sudden he was curled around you, protecting you from the van! It just bounced off of him!" Bella told me, her voice low and fast.

"Bella, I don't know what you're talking about, Jasper wasn't anywhere near me." I told her, slowing my voice down for her. She didn't look convinced, but her eyes widened.

"Why are you defending this? I know what I saw." She stated firmly. Then she stated what had made her eyes widened. "You know they're secret!" She exclaimed. I shushed her glancing around but no one had noticed.

"Yes, Bella, but don't ask because it's not my secret to tell." I told her softly. It may have been my secret to tell when it was just me but now that the Cullens were involved it wasn't something I could say. The moment that I revealed to her my secret then she would know theirs as well and I couldn't do that to them. I'd hate it if someone did that to me, and I'm a firm believer of secret keeping.

"But I'm your sister," She tried to guilt it out of me.

"Bella." I said, firm, taking a hold of her shoulders lightly. "You know that secret that I told you that I couldn't tell you?" I asked her, my words feather soft, and she had to get closer to hear me. "Remember I told you that if I told you my secret then you'd be in danger and that so would Mom and Dad, and Phil and me?" I asked her. She nodded, deflating a little bit.

"This secret is like that. I can't tell you because then you, the Cullens, and even I would be in danger. I can't tell you the secret." I told her, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. When I was younger, and I was playing the part of a fourteen year old I'd been stupid enough to try and go without feeding for three months, because we had been on vacation to the Smokey's Mountains in Tennessee I hadn't wanted to eat any of the protected animals. Bella had caught me sneaking back in after finally feeding on three bears and two panthers. I had smeared a little blood on my cloths because of my reckless need to feed.

Bella had panicked, thinking I'd killed someone but I had assured her that it had just been some animals. She'd asked me what happened and I just couldn't lie to her. I told her I had a secret that I sometimes had to sneak out to do and that I couldn't stop or I would die. She thought I was doing something illegal of course but I'd forced her to see reason, how my eyes weren't dilated, and other things but she'd always been suspicious of that secret.

"Fine," She grimaced, her voice ice cold and her face determined. "Then I'll just have to figure it out myself, and then you won't have to worry about telling me anymore." She walked a little away from me still looking determined but before she could go anywhere really, Dad came through the doors looking frantic. His eyes caught on me and he let out a breath.

I made sure to smile at him. He passed Tyler and did a double take before his face hardened into a scowl. He pointed right at Tyler and told him, "You and I are gonna talk." He threatened but he hurried over to me and to my surprise gathered me into his arms. I let out a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding and I clutched him to me. Because I was so thin his big police jacket nearly swallowed me.

"Dad, I'm all right, it's just a little bump. The Doctor will check me out in a second." I told him. He placed his hand on my head and kissed me on the forehead.

"I was so worried when I got the call." He muttered before letting me go to growl at Tyler. "You can kiss your license good-bye." Dad put an arm around Bella giving her a once over, to see if she'd been hurt as well.

"I'm sorry, Belle, I tried to stop." Tyler pleaded with me.

"I know Tyler. It's okay I don't blame you." I told him but Dad nearly exploded.

"It sure as hell, isn't okay." Dad told me, puffing and his face was red. "You could've been killed. You comprehend that don't you?" He asked.

"Yes, Dad but she wasn't." Bella bailed me out because she could probably tell by the look on my face that I was going to make a smart alleck remark and that would just get me in deeper trouble. Suddenly the door opened again and in walked my doctor.

"I heard the chief's daughter was here." Dr. Carlisle announced. I looked to the ceiling in prayer. How was I going to ever make this double identity work if I saw them all the time?

"Dr. Cullen." Charlie greeted, tense from the conversation before.

"Charlie." He greeted back, a little less happy as he toned it down. "I've got this one, Jackie." Dr. Carlisle – er, Cullen, said to the nurse who was holding my chart and reading it. I raised an eyebrow because I'd been sure that this 'Jackie' had been my doctor, she had the white jacket and everything. But Jackie just smiled, dazzled by the gorgeous doctor in front of her. Me? I rolled my eyes skyward again.

"Isabelle." Dr. Carlisle said looking at my very thin medical records. He frowned at it. "You've never had blood drawn?" He muttered to himself.

"I'm O+ but I try not to get near needles ever since my pediatrician broke one off in my arm." I told him, grimacing. Actually, that had been me because I didn't want the pediatrician finding anything about my blood and venom.

"Yes, I can see why you'd be wary." Dr. Cullen smiled at me and I smiled politely back, not even fazed by his looks, not that he was trying to use them but they were very prominent.

"I go by Belle, by the way." I added, though I did like the name Isabelle, I just found it was too formal.

"Well, Belle, looks like you took quite a spill. How do you feel?" He asked me, tucking the file under his arm so that he can bring at the light pen that all doctors used from his jacket pocket. "Look here."

"I feel fine." I answered his question, even though I was looking at the finger he was holding up to me. He frowned a little.

"Do you wear contacts?" He asked me.

"Yeah, I have them in right now. I've got a lazy eye." I lied. It might as well be true the many times I'd said it. He nodded, his frown vanishing. I'm guessing one of my contacts must have been off tilt it he noticed, but after all he was a vampire and he was very close to me. Luckily the gold would still be unnoticeable hidden behind the brown contacts.

"You might experience some post-traumatic stress or disorientation, but your vitals look good." He told me, smiling and clicking the little flash light and putting it in his pocket. "No signs of any head trauma besides a nasty bump on the back of your head. I think you'll be just fine." He told me, glancing at Charlie with a smile as well. I nodded at him, grabbing my backpack which Bella had managed to grab for me before we'd rushed away.

I heard Tyler try to apologize again, but Dad pulled the curtain between us to shut him up. "Dad." I muttered, at his anger. He looked at me and his anger softened up a little but he didn't pull the curtain back which I was actually kind of grateful for.

I was getting ready to leave, all ready standing up when Bella decided to be naughty. "You know it would've been a whole lot worse if Jasper hadn't been there. He knocked her out of the way." She said. She was obviously digging for something. I gritted my teeth.

"Bella," I warned, whispering into her hair. She only frowned at me and looked back to Carlisle who had tensed a small bit but he was focused on my chart he was marking on. I think that will be the first entre in that whole thing where I was actually hurt. I've been good about not getting injured until now.

"Jasper? Your boy?" Charlie asked, surprised. He looked at me but I determinedly opened my mouth to try and stop the train that is Bella but she was on a role.

"Yeah, it was amazing; he got to her so fast." She dug deeper. I stuck my hand out and pinched her side. I'm sure my mouth was in a line right about now with how hard I was scowling at her. "He was no where near her." She added, taking my hand away from her side like it just happened everyday.

"Sounds like you were very lucky." Carlisle commented and Bella deflated again but her determination didn't falter. "Charlie." Carlisle nodded at my father and Dad nodded back.

"Don't ever do that where I can hear you." I hissed at her as we began walking to the exit, an oblivious Charlie in front of us. "Do you know how embarrassing it was to hear you digging for information on their private life?" I asked her. She only glared at me.

"Just because you know how he did that, doesn't mean I do. I want to know why Edward's always glaring at me and this might have something to do with it." She told me. "He talked to me today, and when I brought up his eyes, he just walked away, trying to blame it on the lights." She told me.

"I don't care, that shit doesn't go down with me. I won't fuel your need to know their secret." I told her, walking close so no one would hear.

"I don't wanna know just their secret, I want to know yours. So you won't have to do it alone. Then I can help you." Bella seriously told me and I felt a wave of affection for my sister but I also felt amusement and I couldn't help the snort.

"Bella, the best thing you could do was turn away and never look at me again. The best thing I could do would be to leave right now and never step foot near you again but since neither of us is willing to do that, we are both just screwed." I told her finishing as Dad held the door open for us to go into the waiting room.

"Uh, you should probably call your Mom." Dad said, awkward. My shoulders dropped and I stared at him for a second.

"You told her?" I asked.

"Yeah, I uh, gotta go sign some paperwork…over there." He muttered trudging away, getting away from the storm.

"Of course he would call her. It's not like she's freaking out or anything. Good Lord, she's probably calling the airports trying set up our flights back to her." I grumbled, pulling my phone out and walking down closer to the hallway so I was away from the other people. It was while I was typing in the number, that I noticed Bella staring at something, hiding behind the wall for some reason. I turned and saw Jasper, Carlisle, Edward, and Rosalie there arguing not too softly.

"…fifteen kids that saw him walk away." Rosalie was saying. I focused on the phone, which had fifteen million texts from multiple people. I started reading them all because I couldn't help but feel curious.

"What did you want me to do? Let her die? Her blood would have only made it worse for me." Jasper argued with her. You know that voice, even to these ears, could melt me to the wall. I flipped through the phone, looking for my Mom's number. I pressed the phone to my ear and let it ring.

"This isn't just about you; it's about all of us. We could have held you back and no one would have noticed. Now fifteen people saw you, not including Edward's stupid human-" Edward growled interrupting her from insulting Bella.

"She is not the problem. What about the other Swan? What are we going to do to keep her quiet?" Edward asked. Oddly, Jasper growled at him. I cleared my throat, looking at them when they caught my eye and then glancing at Bella, who was intently listening.

"Belle?" My mother's voice called through the phone. Jasper looked at me but didn't come over, he had no reason to I'd never spoken to him while I was in this form. Edward though, did come over to Bella. Carlisle and the others turned and went to what I'm guessing was his office.

"Hey, Mom," I told her. "Don't worry about anything, I'm completely fine." I told her I heard her let out a breath and then a bit of static.

"I put you on speaker, Phil's here to." Mom told me.

"Hey, baby-girl I'm so relieved to hear from you." Phil told me. I was close with Phil. I thought he was perfect for Mom. I didn't care about his age, because well to me everyone was a baby.

"Yeah, Philly I'm glad to hear that your team's doing so well. I saw you on T.V. the other night." I told him. It was true, I did, at least I heard it from Charlie anyways. "Your team won, Nine to twelve right?" I asked.

"Yeah, another step closer to the finals." He told me.

"Congrats!" I told him but really I was trying to listen to what Edward was giving away while I talked to them. So far he wasn't holding up just peachy against Bella's persistence to know how Jasper got to me so fast.

"-was standing right next to her, Bella." He tried to explain. I wanted to tell him to give it up because she was stubborn as hell but I couldn't do that when I was hoping for her to know. I wanted Bella to know about me, so I didn't have to hide it from her anymore.

"All right you two, enough about Baseball," Mom said. "Are you sure that you're going to be okay? No lasting damage at all?" She asked to be sure.

"Nope, the doc said that I might have some post-traumatic stress but I highly doubt it. I feel fine except I have a small headache; the nurse says that it was nothing though." I told her the truth.

"Oh, that's so good. Well Phil and I have to go; we're going to have a nice little dinner at a 'Swarma bar' here in New York. It's supposed to be good or something." She said, sounding distracted now that she knew I was fine. Good ole Mom, ADHD at the best of moments.

"Okay then, you and Phil have a good time and be safe." I told her.

"'Bye!" They chorused before I hung up.

"-Well I hope you enjoy disappointment." Edward seethed, pushing away from my sister and walking to the office where his family had gone. I grabbed Bella's hand and tugged her along.

"Looks like Scooby-Doo has her work cut out for her." I teased lightly as I got in the truck that had been driven down here by Mike Newton.


	7. The House

For the rest of that week everyone was all over me but then it died down. All the Cullen's were tensed and I could see that they were waiting for me to blather on about Jasper Cullen's superpowers, all of them but Alice. Alice looked at Bella, like she was the one who was going to blather it out. Not that the others didn't but they seemed to be focused on what they thought was the bigger problem.

What I was focused on? The fact that Edward Cullen was visiting my sister at night. That just pissed me off. My sister had no privacy at all from him while she was sleeping. But it calmed me down that I knew he wasn't doing anything to her. He wouldn't, because he seemed as obsessed with her as she was with him.

On the fifth or sixth week, in which I had been suffering through the heated glares of the Cullens and Alice's silence. Jasper, during our history class had been staring at me to, like he was expecting me to say something to him about it. All it accomplished was making me nervous enough for my hands to tremble while I took notes. Hey, don't blame me, okay let's see you have a gorgeous southern vampire stare at you and see how you end up? I thought I was doing well.

I'd gotten my car yesterday, a nice Lamborghini Cabrera. It was way expensive, massive but it didn't put a dent in the massive fortune that Charlie thinks is my MIA 'mother's' family vault. In reality it was all mine from doing everything over the years. Hey, I said it was my first time using my gift to be in a family, not the first time that I tried to be apart of the human race.

Anyways, of course everyone was all over the car the minute I got it. Even Charlie freaked out a little. It was really dark purple so much so that unless the sun was shining on it that you'd think it black. All the attention for my car was okay, until some guy I don't know the name of decided to run a hand along it. I'd sent him to the nurse with a broken cheek bone and a cracked wrist. No bleeding, but defiant damage. Everyone had been very…careful with my car after that.

I am proud to say that I even saw Rosalie eyeing my car with jealousy. They were all still watching me like a hawk but I didn't care because today was the Biology trip and since I was in Biology II I got to go on it. The bad thing is, so did Bella, Edward, Jasper, and Alice. I could already feel the tension and we were just in the parking lot now.

I was standing with Bella at her truck; my Lamborghini safely parked in a corner of the lot where no one would park next to it and scratch it. That thing was my baby, I tell you.

"I'm just saying, you're going a little too far to name it." Bella told me, but really her eyes were locked on Edward and the Cullens who were as tense as ever.

"I need everybody's permission slips, okay?" Mr. Moliani, the Biology teacher was calling out. I'd given him Bella and I's at the beginning of the week. Charlie had barely even glanced at it before he was back at the game.

"Hey, just because you don't like cars doesn't mean that I can't. You like your truck." I defended, looking again at my beautiful, shiny car. I'd gotten the metal, heavy duty for the back roads, the hail, and the mud. The windows were able to take a low key missile, which was good for the hail or dangerous weather here.

"Yeah, yeah." She muttered at me. I rolled my eyes and grimaced as I rubbed at my throat. I was thirsty as hell but since Edward's been visiting Bella, I haven't been able to go out and drink so I've had to do with human food which actually stabs off the thirst for a few more days. If I didn't drink soon I was going to find myself right where I'd been when I'd attacked those bears in the Smokey's.

"Guys, let's go!" Mr. Morliani was ushering us all to the buses. Bella was out of it but Mike came up to us and cleared his throat.

"Can I speak to Bella?" He muttered to me, his pale skin flushed with nervousness. I knew what he was going to do, ask Bella to the prom. Since she was being an ass this morning, because she couldn't get any information out of me or the Cullens, I would leave her to the wolf.

I regretted this when three feet away from Bella and Mike, I was stopped by Eric. "Um, Hey can I talk to you, uh please?" He nervously asked. Oh, hell. I nodded though as he fidgeted in his pocket.

"Uh, um, I was wondering, it's a month away but you can never be too careful, if you maybe wanted to go to prom with me." Eric asked me and I didn't mean to be mean but my face must have said some of what I was feeling because he hastily added, "As friends of course." I blinked in surprise when I felt emotions swirling in me, anger and possessiveness, that weren't mine.

"Jasper," I heard Alice's voice mutter behind me because she wasn't really being that quiet. The emotions cleared but I acted like it never happened.

"I'm sorry, Eric. I'm your friend and everything but I know someone who really wants to go with you." I apologized but he actually looked happy.

"Really who? Can I still ask them?" He asked me. At least he wasn't hurt that I didn't want to go with him. He really was a good friend, they all were but I just couldn't go with them because I had a thing for a certain blonde empathic vampire.

"Yeah, it's Angela. She really likes you." I told him. He looked surprised.

"Wow, she never said anything. You know I thought she was cute but I never noticed her feelings…" He trailed off, smiling at me. "Thanks, I'll ask her soon." He told me, glancing at Angela who was talking to Jessica as she got on the bus. She blushed when Eric caught her eyes.

"Well, now you know and you can." I said, lightly tapping his shoulder with my fist. "Now come on before he takes off without us." I told him, walking with him. I passed the Cullens and I thought Edward looked a little smug about something while Alice looked like she was trying to encourage Jasper to do something. I was sidetracked as Bella talked to me.

"You know, Jasper Cullen was staring at you." She teased me, and dug at the same time.

"Let it go." I simply said. She would not shut up about that. "Today is going to be a good day; I refuse to let that be ruined." I told her strongly. I climbed onto the bus, sitting in the last empty seat with Bella. She laughed at me and then we were sucked into a conversation with Angela and Jessica about the last swim meet that Forks won.

We were at the green house at the edge of a small city, almost identical to Forks, maybe an hour away from Forks. It was some kind of energy conservation place or that's what the tour guide was explaining. I was kind of not listening. I'd actually already done this, back when I felt bad that I was eating all of the animals. I'd been apart of the Energy Conservation act and I'd worked as a scientist to help them look for some way to help the environment.

We were all standing in huddles, listening, or not listening if you want to be truthful. What we were waiting on was to be cut loose to go enjoy the greenery. I smiled as after an hour long lecture/walking around the tour guide let us loose and everyone started for the first green house. I feel in line a little ahead of Bella, who was still out of it. No doubt thinking about her Edward.

I looked around, not very impressed with the greenery in here, but of course this isn't a rainforest and they weren't going to have blossoming plants. "Hi." I heard. I jumped, having not expected it but when I looked back it was Jasper Cullen, looking very uncomfortable. Alice moved forward smiling widely, winking at me before she passed us to continue. Ah, that little matchmaker can't stay out of my business. Thank you for that!

"Hi." I said back to him. I heard Alice giggle and Jasper's eyes flitted to her in annoyance for a moment. I kept moving, being sure to be slow enough for him to keep up with me if he wanted to. I noticed that he always kept his back straight, I wonder why. I mean I did to, and people had commented on my good posture before but mine was because if a princess slouched you got beaten for it. It's just hard to let things go from your human life, no matter how much time goes by.

"I'm Jasper Cullen," He introduced, sticking his hand out. I glanced at it before placing my hand in it thinking he'd shake it. He brought it up to his lips, kissing the knuckles lightly. My skin tingled where his cold lips made contact with my hand, and I smiled lightly because I was completely dazed. He was so close, with these small rows. I could see all the little golden crystals in his eyes, the black rims that made the golden color stick out even more. I felt light and free because he was giving me all of his attention.

"Isabelle Swan, but I like to be called Belle." I told him as his thumb caressed my knuckles lightly before he dropped my hand. I started walking, a little dazzled still from him. He was wearing a grey sweater and a button shirt under it. He had some dark wash jeans and boots on as well and I was in heaven, I was sure of it.

"Then please, call me Jasper." He told me. "I'm sorry that I didn't introduce myself earlier. We have history class together, don't we?" He asked me; like he hadn't saved me from a speeding van or his whole family hadn't been watching me for the last two months.

"Yes, we do. I have two classes with your sister, Alice." I told him, moving forward in the line. I glanced behind to see my sister and Edward talking to each other. Where they ganging up on us Swans? Oh, it made sense now. They were trying to make sure we didn't talk about the wreck.

"Yes, she talks about you sometimes." He noted as we made our way to the second green house, just like everyone else. I was surprised that in this green house they had all flowers and they were all gorgeous, though some were on recovery from probably being picked by the people ahead of us.

"Yeah, she's really nice and friendly. I like her she's a good friend." I told him. I could really say other things like she also was very sly and that she knows my secret already but I abstain from saying anything.

"Yes, well, she thinks that I should talk to you about…uh…the wreck." He muttered, quieter and since he was already speaking quietly I had to lean in to hear it. He tensed a little and then he turned confused for some reason, from what I don't know but I didn't mind.

"Oh yeah, I never got around to telling you thank you for that." I told him, smiling. And then I had another 'to hell' with it moment. "You should probably tell the rest of your family to worry more about Bella than me." I said. He stopped but we were already out of the greenhouse, and instead we were outside, subconsciously heading to the buses. Edward and Bella had already made it to the bus and they looked like they were having an argument.

"What do you mean?" Jasper asked, casual and if I wasn't who I was he probably would have fooled me. Instead I turned completely to him and smiled softly.

"I'm not going to snoop into your business like Bella but tell Alice something for me." I told him. And he was frozen but I knew he could hear me in his tense brain.

"Tell her that when Bella knows, she can tell you guys." I told him and just so I could feel him I patted his hair. It sent a spike of attraction through me, because I'd wanted to touch that hair sense I laid eyes on it. But now I headed to Edward's rescue, accompanied by Alice who had probably been listening to me. Instead of commenting she looped her arm with mine.

"Hi," Alice started and Edward and Bella, though Edward still looked a little mad, backed away from each other. "Are you going to be riding with us?" Alice asked Bella but Edward answered, only glancing at Alice and I's looped arms. I could feel the cold of Jasper staying behind us, away from Bella.

"No, our bus is full." Edward said, pounding on the door of the bus lightly and the bus driver opened it. I watched him get on the bus and Bella stomped away to the other bus because it was time to go. It was a short field trip but hey, I'll take what I can get. I stood there for a second, arm still in Alice's before I made an exasperated sighing sound.

"All right, Alice. I've got to go calm down Scooby-Doo with a Scooby snack." I joked. Her answering smile was radiant.

"Oh, okay but I'll see you later. Maybe at lunch you could sit with us?" Alice asked. I was shocked to hear this and my steps faltered from where I'd been going to the second bus.

"What?" Jasper said, his expression wide, oh he had no idea what was going on did he? But the confused expression on his face is adorable.

"Sorry Alice, but if I don't stick to Bella she's only going to try harder to find out what makes you guys different. You should probably try to sneak some bites of food in this time around at lunch." I told her, taking my arm away and then turning to Jasper.

"It was nice to meet you, officially." I told Jasper. He bent his shoulders a little and did a semi bow in reflex I'm sure. No one did that any more so I'm guessing the invitation to sit with the Cullens had really startled him. Then again I was startled as well. In exchange I did a small curtsy myself which actually made the side of his mouth twitch upwards. I smiled in return and headed to the bus that now had my fuming sister.

I made it back to school in one piece, Bella only bringing up the Cullens twice to me. She managed to tell me what Edward told her and I was half amused and half upset by it. Mike and the gang kept us pretty busy though and I couldn't help but laugh when Eric pushed Mike into Jessica and she screamed because it smacked her right into the lap of Tyler. All together it was a pretty fun ride back to school and we made it just in time for lunch.

Everyone gathered up together, chatting and I went over to grab a can of nugrape, the cafeteria now keep the fridge stocked with Nugrape for me. I paid for it but I didn't want any food. It's become so disgusting to me because the venom was now denying me to have that until I got some blood in my system. I just vomited the food if I ate anything. I could tell that Bella was starting to notice so I'd have to go soon, maybe tomorrow or something.

As soon as Bella and I made it to the table, her having not gotten anything to eat yet, the gang was all happy and laughing. "La Push, baby. You guys in?" Eric asked bringing my sisters stare away from the Cullens who, funny enough, were taking my advice. They were probably talking about me because I could see that Alice was on the defense against Rosalie, Edward, and oddly enough Jasper.

"Should I know what that means?" Bella asked, completely oblivious but I knew. I knew that a pack of shape shifters were on the Quileute land 'protecting' them from vampires. I'd only run into them once when I was first in America and they had told me not to come on their land, don't bite humans, and we won't kill you. I'd followed their demands, not because I couldn't kill them, but because I thought they had a right to decide if they wanted me on their land or not.

"La Push beach down at the Quileute Rez. We're all going tomorrow." Mike explained for the clueless us.

"Yeah, there's a big swell coming in." Jessica told us but it didn't make a difference to me. I didn't want to go near that place anytime soon.

"And," Erik stood up, exclaiming with wild surfing gestures, "I don't just surf the internet." He said and Mike stood up from sitting on the table top to mimic him. I rolled my eyes though and pushed the unnecessary Nugrape into my bag for 'later'.

"Eric, you stood up once, and it was a foam board." Jessica said laughing. Tyler tugged Mike to sit back down. Tyler only had a bandage on his head from where the car had hit him pretty hard. He had needed stitches before but now it was just a band aid making sure the skin stayed together.

"But there's whale watching, too." Angela joined the rest of them in trying to get us to come to the beach. "You should come with us."

"La Push, baby. It's La Push." Eric said and I snorted.

"Okay, I'll go if you stop saying that, okay?" Bella agreed and everyone laughed at him.

"Seriously dude, it's creeping me out." Mike commented.

"What? That's what it's called." Eric replied. Bella walked away to get her food.

"What about you, Belle? Are you coming?" Jessica asked.

"Oh, no I'm sorry I've got plans actually. Plus, I bet it's going to be freezing out there in that water." I told them, sitting down. "I like to swim but just not tomorrow." I told them. There were a round of awe's but I rolled my eyes. "Oh, please. Just have fun in my steed." I ordered only to groan when I glanced at Bella to see her talking to Edward and just like before she'd come stomping back when she didn't get any answers and then she'll try and pull the answers out of me. Fan-fucking-tastic. I was going to have to have a word with Edward Cullen soon if this kept up.

I was so happy when Bella left the next day for the beach. The whole day I'd been tense, ready to drink some animal blood and it made me really jumpy. Alice had noticed and I know she wanted to ask what was wrong but she couldn't in case one of the humans heard. Jasper talked to me, asking small questions. That made me very blissful. I was beginning to think that there was something wrong with me. I know he's beautiful, and gorgeous, and intelligent, and has a panty-dropping voice but I really shouldn't think about him as much as I am. Now every time I glance at the Cullens, for whatever reason it is that day, I glance at him instead of Alice.

So you can guess with all of the tension that when I finally jumped out of my window in full vampire self that I was happy enough to not care that as myself I hadn't talked to the Cullen's since the game. I wish that it was by complete accident that the Cullens found me right after I had finished dining on two bucks and a cougar near the mountains. I had just finished burying the remains and then Jasper and Rosalie were there. I was glad that I had waited those extra few minutes to change clothes. I'd even worn the Cullen hat that Alice had given me though now my hair fell freely down my back.

"Hey, Alice said you'd be here." Rosalie smiled at me. It took me a second to adjust to the new Rosalie, the one who wasn't glaring 24/7.

"And here I am. It's good to see you two again." I smiled, walking forward to hug Rosalie and she hugged me back. I opened my arms and Jasper hugged me as well, though his eyebrows were raised. I didn't deem it necessary to tell him I just wanted to feel his body against mine because I'm almost positive he felt the spike of lust I just felt.

"Well, can I ask what it is you need?" I said taking a step back to be able to see both of them. Not that I didn't trust them but personal space is always appreciated.

"Esme was wondering if you would like to come see the house now. She's cleaned it up in preparation for you." Jasper told me again with that smirk. Yeah, he felt that lust, smug little emotion feeler wouldn't be so smug if I slapped you in the face. But alas, we can not always do thus!

"Actually I have some time, I'd love to." I told her, and laughed when Alice burst through the trees right on time.

"Good, I told Esme you were coming already. She's in a mad dash to get everything cleaned up. Worse yet, Emmett just broke the coffee table so she's making him go get a spare from the shed." She exclaimed not even saying hello before she grabbed my arm and tugged me along. I groaned and started running, dodging trees so I don't rip up my outfit.

It didn't take us long, I hadn't had the patience to go far, but Jasper ended up turning it into a race which he won. I was muttering obscenities before Rosalie and Alice stopped. I pulled to a halt as well right outside a beautiful window filled house. Two of the walls were made of windows, but you couldn't see into the house because the windows were tinted, that is you can't see unless you're a vampire. I could see wonderful white themed rooms; it looked so light and free. Something I should have expected.

"It's beautiful." I said, walking towards the stairs. Esme came out of the door, happily with Carlisle coming as well.

"Thank you." She told me. I smiled at her and she opened her arms, just like I'd done to the other two. I hugged her back and I realized from the hug that she thought I of me as my age, twenty and child like. It made me chuckle but the feeling was nice because I've never had anyone who wanted to be my mother before. So, I let her pull me into the house and chatter away.

"We've got a lot of memento's from around the world and from our human lives so we try to keep those with us when we go through houses. This cross used to be Carlisle's father's. The picture was from my house when I was a child. The medals' are Jasper's." I looked at everything. The cross was really old wood, and on the stairs and the picture was beautiful of a woman sitting at a lake view. The medal's though were awesome. He was a major it seemed and by the confederate buttons I could tell from just what side and what war.

"Awesome, I have some stuff from my own time. Just a few things though." I muttered, continuing to listen as I fingered the cartouche's still hanging from my neck. The others had broken off so that Esme could have her time with me. I patiently listened to her as she pointed out different rooms, Carlisle's study, her art room, their room, the kitchen and living room, and even the bedrooms themselves. Edward was in his room, reading while lying on a couch and he waved to me as we passed. I waved back even though I was still a bit upset with him about my sister. It was none of my business yet, not until he told her.

Esme finally got done with the tour at a blank room. "This is um…an extra room for now. I haven't done anything in it yet." She told me and I saw a nervous sparkle in her eye but it was gone when she told me that was the end of the tour. I sped down to the living room where everyone but Carlisle, Esme, and Edward were. Alice was sitting there reading a magazine about nails, bored, and Jasper and Emmett were battling it out on some kind of video game.

Rosalie though was on what I guess was her laptop at some kind of store. I just went ahead and plopped down on the floor, in between the two chairs that the boys were in so that I could watch the video game. After five seconds I was confused. "What's the point in it?" I asked, confused. Rosalie looked up making a cutting motion on her neck to me but it was too late. Emmett paused the game and turned to me slowly.

"The point?" He asked, his eyes wide. "The point is to kill everything in sight and win the game. Have you never played?" He asked and I got Déjà vu from the day of the baseball game.

"I played DS once." I stated and he gasped in horror before shoving the little remote thingie at me. I stared at it. What were the squares and the triangles and the little stick for?

"You, I must teach you at once." Emmett exclaimed. He pointed to the buttons, explaining what each of them were, Jasper helping by giving me tips. I just stared at them when they finished and looked to Alice.

"What is the likelihood of me escaping this?" I asked her, gloom. She didn't even look up from her magazine.

"Zero percent." She intoned. I groaned but grasped the remote.

"You ready, darling?" Jasper asked me, his accent once again prominent since he wasn't trying to act human. I sighed, both from that undeniable attraction, and from being resigned.

"As I'll ever be." I told him. I concentrated on the screen and when he started it – because I didn't know how- I started pushing all the buttons. I squealed as every time I shot it went straight at Jasper's character. "Sorry!" I squeaked, moving the appropriate joystick while Emmett howled with laughter. Jasper just chuckled, distracting me a little bit but the game wasn't as hard as I thought it was. It just had a little too much violence. When we completed the 'level' or room whatever the hell it did before it stopped to continue the little bit of story line it had in it I threw the remote back at Emmett. He pouted but I scowled instead.

"I'm sticking to Pokémon." I announced and Emmett started at me, uncomprehending and it was my turn to be offended. "You are telling me the video game expert doesn't know Pokémon?" I asked him. He shook his head and I scoffed. "Some expert you are. I can't even look at you." I turned away and stared at the wall over Jasper's beautiful hair. No strike that. I managed to stare directly at his hair.

"What?" Jasper asked and I looked down from his hair to look at him.

"What?" I copied.

"What are you staring at?" He asked me, confused and I couldn't help myself.

"What are _you _staring at?" I asked him putting stress on the word you. Emmett's laughter rang through the house but I only turned to glare at him.

"Uh-uh, I'm still not talking to you." I told him, pointing at him. "What kind of gamer _hasn't _played Pokémon before? I mean are you stupid?" I asked him. He whined but I just stared at him. "I am not Rosalie, and that does not work on me." I said and everyone started laughing, I even heard Esme's twinkling laughter from upstairs.

"She's right, you'll be left sitting there and Jasper will keep killing your character, causing you to lose the bet." Alice cut in to our laughter. That caused Emmett to growl and turn the game back on. I flinched a second because this time I was so close. I can just see Tutankhamen doing that and I absently ran my finger along the scar at my hip as I leant against the bookcase to watch the boys battle each other on the game console. It was a lot harder for us because we have to make sure that we don't move to fast for the game to detect, and you can't get mad or you'll break the controls.

"Oh!" I watched as this huge guy came onto the screen with massive chainsaws. "This is ridiculous, why am I watching this?" I asked, exasperated.

"Because you are sucked in by your curiosity." Jasper said, sparing me a glance because he could afford to with the way he was winning. "I can feel it." He said, Ahh, so now I could glare at him all I wanted.

"Really?" I asked, innocently though Alice giggled and started humming.

"It's my gift." Jasper said. "I can absorb and manipulate emotions." He said, then there was a flash on the screen and then they had beaten the boss. I didn't particularly care because it just looked weird to me.

"That's pretty good. Who else has a gift? I know Alice's and Edward's gifts." I inquired. Jasper smiled down at me and I blinked, taking the smile in stride. Though by the way it got wider he was putting that gift to use and had realized that I was affected by his smile. Damn you hormones!

"We have a theory that everyone brings over a little something when they are changed. We figure that Emmett brought over his strength, Rosalie her…beauty, Esme her compassion, and Carlisle his control." Alice explained. I got it though because it made a lot more sense then us just getting a bunch of random abilities when we turned, I wonder how I got my gift from. I don't remember aging specially while I was human?

"That makes a lot of sense." I agreed. The boys turned off the TV and I realized that I'd brought us to a serious conversation. I sat up straight and I sat down on the sofa with Alice. Carlisle and Esme casually wondered in. "I've often wondered why we got these gifts." I muttered, straightening my shirt so it didn't show my pale stomach and the scars there.

"Do you have a gift?" Carlisle asked pleasantly. Alice snorted and kicked me in the leg and I twitched before glaring at her.

"Why did you kick me?" I asked Alice.

"Uh-uh, you got yourself into this one, you can get yourself out." Alice told me, looking at her magazine again. I was positive that she wasn't even reading it. I just glared at her while I answered Carlisle.

"Yes, I do have a gift, it's rather unique." I answered, already formulating a plan.

"What is it?" Jasper's soft honey voice asked. I turned away from Alice to smile at the family but I zoomed in on Edward instead.

"You know, you're killing my sister." I told him. Everyone's faces became masks of confusion. "She's so close to knowing what you are that she can smell it." I told them and then I shifted, twitching in pain from the change for a second. My cells changed and before them stood one of the major problems they were facing, the human Belle. There were unneeded gasps before Rosalie's voice sounded.

"You can choose to be human?" She asked me, sitting forward quickly.

"No, no, that's not it." I said, changing again so that I was two years old. "I can age. It's my gift." I said and I admitted my voice sounded really distorted so I turned fifty. "I don't know why, maybe it was because I didn't seem to age at all when I was human, because I was always 'beautiful.'" I answered turning vampire again.

"Then why do you…" Rosalie struggled and Carlisle, serious once again just like I'd seen him as a Doctor helped her.

"I believe Rosalie is trying to ask why you remain a vampire when you can choose to age and die." Carlisle amended. I shifted a bit in my seat and Alice moved a tiny bit closer in comfort.

"I, can't, die actually. I can keep aging, I've tried up to being two-hundred and four but I didn't bother after that. I tried everything while I was human; I just change back to being a vampire again no matter how much I'm hurt." I told them, picking at the skirt I was wearing. It was such a nice one to. "So one day I got the idea, to become a baby and find a family to join with so that I can try to live a human life." I explained.

"But what will you do when your family dies, when everyone dies besides you?" Jasper asked and I felt a stab of pain just from him mentioning it.

"I don't know yet, I could go on to another family or more than likely I'll fall into a depression again." I commented lightly. Jasper's eyes narrowed and then I felt happy and all joyful to be alive. "Jasper!" I commented, trying to scowl but it was impossible. He smiled at me though and toned it down.

"Or, you can join us." Emmett commented. I blinked in surprise my hand flying to my mouth on instinct in shock. He looked around when he got hit on the arm by Esme who had been standing beside him. "What, you were going to ask her anyways, no use in waiting so long." He muttered, appropriately abashed.

"Yes, but she isn't a nomad vampire, she won't stay here if she has a family already." Esme lectured him. I smiled and Alice patted my leg in encouragement.

"No, no. Um. When I turn 18. If it's okay with you guys I can come stay with you. Charlie will be a little sad but now that you've brought it up I'd love to finally settle into a coven." I admitted. Esme squealed and hugged me with such great strength I felt my skin cracking the way it does when we vampires get hurt.

"Esme." Carlisle warned. She quickly released me but I smiled at her, the pain starting to vanish already.

"I'm just so excited. I can get your room ready at once, so we can be prepared for you. What would you like the theme to be? Ancient Egypt? Oh that would be marvelous." I saw her go into a daze just thinking about it and I laughed.

"All right, _Alice_." I teased. "No need to get to excited. It can be anything really, but I did rather enjoy the ocean, maybe you can make that the theme instead?" I asked her. She smiled and breezed back over to sit on the edge of Carlisle's chair. His arm automatically went around her but I smiled and pretended that I didn't want that for me. All right, I know I'm just tired of being alone, you know?

"What was that crack for? I don't try to crush you daily!" Alice chimed in to lighten the mood.

"No, you don't but you are the only one who gets excited about things like picking out clothes." I teased. She slapped me a bit and I made a weird sound between a whine and a chuckle. Either way Emmett was happy.

"Yes!" He boomed, standing up. "Someone else who can get slapped around here!" Emmett did a weird little happy dance which had me laughing because his large body just looked weird trying to prance in place.

"Emmett, you look like a drowning llama, please stop before I'm scarred for eternity." I teased him. He immediately honed in on me.

"Really, do you think you can dance better than me?" He asked, taking a step forward. I hopped up and stood right before him, dismissing the three feet he had to have on me in height.

"I know I can." I accepted his challenge.

"You want to make a bet?" He showed all of his teeth in a grin and I returned it.

"That depends on what it is you want to bet on." I told him. He seemed to be thinking. "Don't crush your tiny mind trying to think of anything." I teased again because it was just to fun. Then Jasper spoke up.

"How about if Emmett wins, you sit with us at lunch?" He proposed. I blinked at him in surprise. I had just been expecting money to come up. I wasn't the only one surprised though. It made me curious to why they were surprised but I dismissed it as none of my business. Then I got the wickedest, and anxiety inducing idea.

"All right, and if I win then you have to take me on a date, as a human." I challenged. The whole place went silent, Jasper moving a little closer to me, despite our audience of squealing girls and groaning men.

"Accepted." Jasper breathed and I loved the scent of leather, musk, and grass that rolled over me from him.

"Good." I chirped turning to Emmett who was making gagging faces. I repaid him for ruining my moment by roundhouse kicking him in the nuts. He hadn't seen it coming, so he went down at once, holding onto his jewels for dear life. I laughed hysterically and so were the Cullens but I quit laughing when Jasper leant on me, because he was laughing so hard. That or he used it as an excuse, either way I was happy to feel his muscles contract underneath his skin.


	8. The Snapshot

"He's not here." Jessica told the searching Bella. All three of us, and most of the school, are currently hanging around outside during the morning. We were enjoying the first bit of sunlight that Forks had seen since Bella and I arrived here. It was great and I felt wonderful. I felt bad for the Cullens though, because they couldn't enjoy the day out. Of course I also felt bad that I couldn't just skip the day. However it was better to feel the sun on my skin then to have to hide away because I sparkle. I mean, really, why do we sparkle? To attract rednecks?

Jessica was sunbathing on the table while I had on a light, see throw white shirt with a black tank-top under it and was taking up all of the bench of the picnic table to soak up the sun with. I'd pulled my jacket off and rolled up my jeans so that I could fully enjoy the heat from the sun. It would probably leave soon because this was Forks after all.

"Whenever the weather's nice, the Cullens disappear." Jessica explained. Great, even Jessica was noticing that Bella had an obsession with the Cullens. Next thing you know she's going to be shouting her findings to the universe. Bella had spent a little too long in her room this morning and when I'd gone to check on her she'd been on her laptop researching some kind of book store. I shiver to think if it was about the Cullens. Though she had been at the beach with the gang it seemed she'd gotten closer to knowing because she was glowing with anxiety.

"What, do they just ditch?" Bella asked, once again digging. I wasn't even scared anymore; I was more amused than afraid that she'd find out.

"No, um Dr. and Mrs. Cullen yank them out for, like, hiking and camping and stuff." Jessica told us. She kept her eyelids closed, like mine were. I had wondered what excuse they would use to get away from the sun. I guess I know now. I wonder what they do when they're somewhere with no mountains? "I tried that out on my parents. Not even close." I snorted in lazy amusement. God, my knees were sore from yesterday.

"I don't think Charlie would fall for it either, no matter how much I begged." I told them.

"Guys!" I heard Angela. I sat up, bracing myself on the table when I got slightly woozy from rising so fast. "I'm going to the prom with Eric." Angela announced. I rose to hug her and congratulate her. Bella did the same. "I just asked him. I took control." She explained.

"I told you that would happen." Bella said, acting haughty. I laughed and grabbed the green apple from her hand and took a large bite out of it. I chomped it loudly and with my mouth open just to make her laugh, it worked.

"Are you sure you have to go out of town?" Angela asked, a little sadness seeping into her voice. I blinked and my eyebrow rose. Bella looked sheepishly at me and shook her head at me.

"Yeah, it's a little family thing that Mom and I are doing." Bella excused.

"Are you going to be going?" Jessica asked me.

"To where?" I asked in return, already staring at the apple in my hand, I wonder if I should take another bite.

"To the family thing with Bella?" Jessica asked her eyebrows pulling together.

"Oh, no. You see I'm not as close with my Mom. I'm planning to stay here." I told her. "So yes I'm going to have to find a date for prom." My mouth twitched, thinking about a certain honey haired gentlemen.

"Oh, then we should go shopping in Port Angeles before all the good dresses get cleaned out." Jessica said. The bell rang and I groaned loudly. I got my stuff together, tugging my pants legs back down and grabbing the book bag that I'd abandoned when we'd first reached the table in the morning. You know I just felt great to be alive.

"Port Angeles? You mind if I come?" Bella asked suddenly. I stopped in surprise.

"You? Going shopping?" I asked then I quickly grabbed Jessica's shoulders. "Hurry, the world must be coming to an end. I want you to know that I thought you and Mike were going to make a great couple and you would get to have his demon seeds." I was frantic with fake horror. Bella slapped me when I went to run over to another group of people to tell them the 'news'.

"Yes, Bella. I need your opinion anyways." Angela said, because she had long since learned to push away my weird attitude. "And Belle has to come. I haven't gotten to ride in her car yet." Angela commented, looking to me.

"Oh, actually, I can't go. I've got plans." I said smugly as we all walked together so that we could split to our classes together.

"What? What plans? Come on you already bailed out on us yesterday." Jessica whined, tugging on my shirt sleeve. That was all the prompting I needed.

"I have a date." I said, throwing the apple in my hand at the trash can.

"What?" Bella said, her turn to be incredulous. "You? Oh my God, someone help it's the end of the world!" She begged Angela just like I had before. I rolled my eyes. She was quick though to come back to her senses because of the insatiable curiosity of hers. "Who has finally grabbed your interest?" She demanded.

"…you know it's a beautiful day today and if we don't get inside we'll be late for class." I said, smiling. She retaliated by hitting me with her book bag. "All right, all right. Jasper Hale." I told her. Her eyes bugged comically and I smiled as Angela fumbled and dropped the book she _had _been reading. Jessica's head snapped to me from where she'd been glancing at Mike.

"What?" All three of them exclaimed. "How the hell did you manage that?" Jessica asked. I turned serious on them.

"I'm sorry young grasshoppers, but I cannot bestow upon you my wisdom." I told them, solemnly. "I fear you may try and use it for more than just the justice of love." I told them before I grabbed Angela's arm, tugging her towards first period. We were so late for class now.

**Short, choppy and to the point. XD That's why it's called a snapshot! I know I didn't post the actual dance battle. I don't think I could have possibly made it as funny as it would have been had you speculated, or thought up what happened on your own! So, I'm going to let your minds wander!**

**I hope you enjoyed because I might not be updating for awhile. I want to rush ahead and write the rest of it. I know I've _already _waited a long time to update this story, and I'm really sorry for that but bare with me!**


	9. The Date

"You're wearing that?" Bella demanded. She was going to leave to go with Jessica and Angela soon but right now she was trying to make me nervous about my date. She claims that its payback for not telling her how I got the date. I'd just rolled over and taken it because I really was nervous. I'd never really spoken directly with Jasper without his family present, except for that once in the green house. I could have been dipped in nervous butter because there was no way that I was going to be able to calm down.

To make it worse, Bella spilled the beans to Dad and now he wants to meet him. Jasper had agreed, since he was already picking me up at my house. He told me he was going to take me on a walk and then to the movies. I'd asked him why the walk and he'd answered me.

"Because. I'm from a time when one called on their girl. The only way we would get alone time with them was to take a walk with them." I'd melted right into the idea without having to think about it and I'd been rewarded with a heart stopping smile. He just looked so adorable and tender that sometimes I had a hard time thinking about the smug Jasper that always smirked when he felt my feelings towards him.

"Yeah, I think he'll like it. He's not really into all the fancy dresses and stuff." I said glancing at the boots. Maybe I shouldn't wear such high heels. "I mean. He's from the country originally. They didn't really bother with dresses besides for the dances." I muttered. "Do you think I should wear my old cowgirl boats?" I asked, searching in the closet for them.

"You mean the ones from when we were six? I don't think you still can." She sounded amused by my franticness.

"Bella, this is not a laughing matter." I told her, taking my bracelet from my desk and snapping it on. I turned back to my closet this time searching for a jacket, just in case. I decided that I didn't need one because I couldn't find one that matched just right.

"Hey, Belle." I heard Charlie's voice from my bedroom door. I turned and smiled at him.

"Hey, Dad, you're a boy. Isn't this outfit nice?" I asked him spinning around in it and striking a funny pose. Bella laughed at me but Dad didn't. He seemed to have taken my joking serious.

"Don't you have any baggier jeans?" Dad strained out between his teeth. I smiled softly and walked to him so that I could wrap him in a hug.

"Don't worry, Daddy. Jasper's a southern gentleman; his eyes won't even be allowed to look. Plus, I'll always be Daddy's little girl first." I squeezed his waist for a moment before breaking the hug off to smile at his face.

"I don't know, isn't he a little old for you?" Dad stressed, still wary of the boy he hadn't even met yet. I felt my eyes roll before I could even stop them. It was ridiculous to me that Dad would even say that but he didn't know that I was older than Jasper.

"Daddy, he's only a year older than me." I dismissed him but I did wonder about the physical age. I was nineteen when I was changed. "What is it that you wanted though? Is Jasper here?" I got nervous, glancing down the stairs.

"No, no. Uhm, I just wanted you to do something before he got here." Dad said, pulling out a little green can. I took it curious and then my cheeks brightened when I saw what it read on the side, 'pepper spray'.

"Dad…" I complained.

"Just…it'll make me feel better." He muttered, his own cheeks a rose color. I sighed and waved it off.

"Only for you." I told him, tossing it into my purse and zipping it up. I didn't have much in my purse, only my wallet, license, keys, extra contacts, and a large stash of candy. There was one other thing in there and it was a picture case that held pictures of my friends here in Forks and my family before and after the divorce. "Because if this was Mom, this crap wouldn't be going down so well!" I said, pointing my finger at him in warning. He held up his hands and walked back to the stairs, and then down them like I had him at gun point.

"You know, he's just looking out for you." Bella commented, a little less joking now. I turned and smiled at her.

"I know that but it really isn't necessary. Jasper would never hurt me." I told her. I paused, trying to think of anything else I needed. Oh, perfume. Nothing to overpowering or chemically or that would hurt his sensitive smelling senses. I knew just what to use. I pulled out an old worn bottle of elixir from deep in my closet. It was old and had been in my purse when I'd changed into a vampire. I brushed my hands over it softly. I'd had it since my real mother had given it to me. I still had the recipe to but this had been made by her hands, not some servants, not by some unnamed person who didn't care, but my loving mother.

"Is that?" Bella whispered. She knew what it meant to me and she also knew that I only brought it out on very special occasions. "Are you sure he's worth it?" Bella asked. I turned to her in surprise. "I mean, what if…what if they are the bad guys?" She asked me softly. I smiled at her and put one hand on her cheek.

"I can assure you, they aren't the bad ones." I told her. Then I pulled the age old cork on the elixir and out came the scent of the heavens. It was crushed juice from a cactus, this one still being the original it was from the Royal Gardens of my original home in modern day lower Europe. I got this when I was fourteen, I was married at fifteen.

I heard a car with a roaring engine pull up and I went to my window to glance outside. To my surprise a 1953 Cherlot corvette with a dark finish was pulling into my street. I squealed and carefully dabbed one dot of it in the appropriate place and corked the bottle again. "Don't you need more? Is he even going to smell that?" Bella asked me.

"Trust me he'll smell it." I told her, hurrying around my room. I looked in the mirror even to make sure my long hair was in place, which was silly because I'd just pinned a few of the pieces back so it wouldn't all just fall in my face. I straightened my shirt and my under armor out, tugging on the black pants a little so they wouldn't show my crack if I bend down, though I have to say for the amount I paid for these panties at Victoria Secret, they deserved to be seen by someone other than me and the sales rep.

"Okay, any flaws?" I asked her, just as there was a quiet knock on the front door. Bella took a long moment to look me over. "Hurry up or-" Ah to late. I heard Charlie open the door and greet Jasper.

"Hi, Chief Swan." Jasper greeted and I smiled goofily at the distant sound of his voice. Bella giggled at me before giving the okay via thumbs up. I grabbed my purse and headed for the stairs. I thanked my vampire side that I wasn't as clumsy as Bella because these high heels/ boots were high compared to what I was used to wearing everyday, converse.

I caught sight of Jasper and my Dad standing right in front of the door. And I smiled at Jasper. He was wearing jeans and a low cut, black shirt. He even had a few necklaces on him as well as a hat on his head. He looked stunning and I was just so happy. I could see all of the scars on his neck, though I had to look for them, even that one he had right on his jaw but I had to admit that they made me happy to see them. I guess I have to add scars to my list of fetishes. I smiled at his straight back and I went on my tiptoes to give him a kiss on his smooth, cold, hard cheek. I ignored the blush that was probably on my face as Jasper's hand rested in the small of my back for the first time. It sent a shot of tingles up my spin, and I'm positive that it wasn't from Jasper's power.

But the wave of nervous amusement that I felt for a moment was from Jasper though and it made me glance up at him and smile bigger. "Daddy. I'd planned to introduce you myself. This is Jasper Hale. Jasper, this is my Dad, Charlie Swan." I told them. Jasper stuck his hand out for my reluctant Dad. Well I thought he was reluctant but then he seemed to relax and he took Jasper's offered hand.

"Well, Jasper, it looks like I'm going to be seeing you quite often." My Dad lightly teased me and I scowled at him for a moment before Jasper sent me a wave of contentment that made my toes curl.

"Of course, Charlie." Jasper replied to him, smiling charmingly and I watched as even my father fell to the might of my Jasper's charm. My Jasper? Shit, back it up there, first date comes then when he asks to be your boyfriend, that's when you can call him yours.

"You two have fun." Charlie said, making shooing motions with his hands then pausing. "Have her back by nine." He said.

"Dad!" I exclaimed. "We talked." I reminded him.

"Fine, fine. Ten, but it's a school night, remember that." He ordered. I moved away from Jasper long enough to kiss Daddy on the cheek. Then I turned back to Jasper and smiled before threading my fingers through his own and tugging him out into the fresh, moist air of Forks.

I was a little disappointed that I had to let his hand go when we got to my side of the car, which he opened like a gentlemen. "Is this going to be an every-door thing?" I asked, internally pleased. Jasper cracked a smile at me.

"Well, I am a southern gentleman, darlin'." He drawled and I sighed.

"I guess I don't have to tell you how much I love your accent do I?" I told him and he smiled at me as I got in. He walked casually to his side because much to my shame, both Bella and Charlie were watching him, one from the upstairs window, and the other from the door.

When Jasper climbed into the driver's seat and started the car he answered my question for me. "No, but I still like to hear what you think about me. I can't always guess what thought the emotion is attached to." He informed me pulling the nice car out of my driveway.

"Hmmm…" I noted and I grinned when his right hand reached over and took mine that had been resting on my lap. "Maybe so, but you are rather good at guessing what I'm thinking." I told him, squeezing his hand and he squeezed back.

"I just figured…" He stumbled over his words and that surprised me, he even straightened a little more in his seat. "I just figured that after so long that you might like to be touched and showed how I feel." Jasper explained. I got a little offended at that and he hastily retreated. "I don't mean it like it sounds, I meant that I can tell that you are older, and probably wiser. I was changed almost two hundred years ago and I always enjoy having people, like my family, to show me affection." He explained, and I could almost see the flush that would have been on his cheeks had he been human. I admit, though it was a little blunder in just his speech, it only made my heart fonder of him. It made me happy, because I didn't want someone who was perfect, like Edward is to Bella. I wanted someone who could have flaws and _still _make my heart jump into my throat.

"It's true." I sighed lightly. "I am a little to old aren't I? Three-thousand and five hundred years is a long time." I said lightly. Jasper had pulled us down a back road, not dirt or grass, still asphalt but there were no cars along it. Then I got a thought. "Does that make me a cougar?" I asked and didn't wait for him to answer. "I always wanted to know what it felt like." I stared intently at him as if I was analyzing the feeling and he turned his head to look right back at me. If I didn't know better I would have told him to watch the road. You know I still feel like telling him to watch the road but I figured it was unnecessary.

"And what does it feel like?" Jasper asked me, and his driving was still spotless. I had a dirty thought and I think now was the wrong time to have it. I thought about just how I could _really _distract him right now and how I could run my fingers through his hair. "Ah." He answered himself. I blinked and blushed scarlet, maybe I had best turn vampire, just so I don't have to deal with the blushing and the emotions. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the emotions but wow.

"Don't even think that way, Mister Hale." I growled at him playfully. "That would be one of the times that you wouldn't know what thought the emotion was attached to." I teased him.

"Then why not enlighten me?" He flirted. I paused for a moment to flush at the way his voice purred at me, like the cat about to play with the mouse. Well….well….this mouse has….ah shit I got nothing.

"I could, but then I couldn't look you in the face again." I told Jasper, grinning at him. "I would be to embarrassed that it even came out of my mouth. In fact, I'm shocked I'm telling you-" I caught myself. "Jasper!" I squealed and the need I felt to tell him exactly what I was thinking left me. I used my right hand, the one that wasn't knotted with his, to slap him lightly on the arm.

"My apologies ma'am." Jasper said, looking at the road now. I sighed.

"What does it feel like to have to bare everyone else's emotions?" I wondered out loud. Jasper's hand tightened on my own and I winced. Automatically his hand loosened and he looked a little guilty at my pain. I felt horrible that he couldn't even hold my hand without having to watch himself and with a twitch of pain I filled out my clothes a lot more with my vampire form.

"You didn't have to do that." Jasper muttered, lifting our joined hands to use his index finger to push a strand of long black hair behind my pale ear. "I could've held back."

"Yeah, I have no doubt you could have, but I don't want you to have to do that with me." I told him sincerely as he looked back at me rather than the road.

"And I don't want you to have to keep changing identities to be with me because I can't control myself. I don't feel…the lust to drink your blood in either form, and it's ….both nice and refreshing. I like not wanting to suck a human's soul out of them." He muttered the last part with a half smile on his gorgeous face. I noticed that the scar at his jaw tugged a bit of his smile down, making it even better for me because it just seemed right. It seemed like it was just for me, all these imperfections that were turned into perfections.

"You didn't answer my question though." I noted and he chuckled once before being serious again, though I realized it must be hard for him to answer my question because he looked more at the road now. I guess it helped if he didn't look at me or was that just something people did naturally when something was hard for them to talk about? I placed my second hand on his wrist lightly to encourage him. To make it more comfortable, even though I wasn't uncomfortable when I was in my vampire body, I pulled my legs up into the seat. In doing this I accomplished getting closer to Jasper.

"Feeling the human's emotions isn't as hard because they rarely feel too strongly about anything at any given moment. When I catch them at bad times it's a little harder for me to stand. I mean if they are thinking about their parents divorcing, or they just caught their boyfriend cheating, it's bad but not unbearable. With vampires it's stronger, and harder to control. When I'm around my family it's hard to concentrate on things other than the bloodlust because there is always that underlying want for blood that they feel. It's multiplied because I'm feeling both theirs and my own." He explained and he pulled the car to a stop, right outside a dirt path that lead higher into the mountains.

When Jasper made no motion to get out of the car I settled down into the seat to listen to him.

"Vampires feel very strongly. It's hard to explain but when I can feel the emotions of a vampire it's like they're sending them right at me all the time. I know you don't do it on purpose but it happens." He was looking me in the eyes now and I smiled kindly at him. "Yours are rather prominent to me, not because they scream at me but because they come at me like second nature. It's seems as if I have a connection where I always feel you and I can always tell what you feel." His hand reached up to run along my cheekbone as I stared at his beautiful eyes. I caught his hand and held it to my face when he went to take it off.

"That's very romantic Jasper." I whispered smiling. "I wish I had a gift like that but I'm afraid I don't do that." I told him. I felt like if I spoke above a whisper then the mood would be ruined.

"It's truth, not romance." Jasper half-smiled at me and his eyes were half-lidded. I watched as he leaned closer, his breath, soft as it blows on my face. "Romantic is telling you that you captured my attention the moment that I saw you drinking from the deer." He moved his hand to hold the side of my head and I dropped my hand back onto my lap as I listened to him. "I curse and bless the moment I stepped onto that tree branch. I had been watching you feed on the deer since you snapped its neck. You were so graceful and the way you prayed for it, like the loss of even an animal made you sad, and it did."

I smiled at him. "Well, I don't know how romantic I can be but I'm afraid you captured my attention in the cafeteria. It wasn't anything special, not in the way you described. For me I saw you there and I remember I was thinking about how you guys all could make it to fool the humans into thinking you are normal. My first thought about you had been that your hair was gorgeous." I smiled and my hand rose, pausing for permission.

"Touch it then." He drawled, like he was indulging me. I smiled and ran my fingers through it, just like I'd been literally dreaming about. "Mmmm…" Jasper purred as I stroked his hair. It made me smile lazily at him. The hair was every bit as good as I'd hoped it would be. It was light, free, and soft. I loved it even more, and I realized that Jasper could feel that love in me and he was smiling with his eyes closed.

"Did you hear me that day?" I asked him, not being able to stop myself. "When I told Bella that I had a hair fetish and that I was in love with your hair?" I asked him and his mouth lazily stretched into a smile.

"I did hear the part where you were in love with my hair." He told me. I was still running my hand through his hair and I decided that I'd probably never get tired of it. Ever.

"Well, Jasper Hale, you are in luck because I have both a hair fetish, and a thing for accents." I finally announce, above a whisper. I reluctantly let my hand fall away from his hair and down instead to land on his thigh. I was happy, even though I hadn't meant for it to land there. He in turn dropped the hand that I hadn't even noticed had been twirling a strand of my own hair.

"Jasper Whitlock." Jasper told me as he opened his door, vampire speeding to my door to open it for me. I took off my seatbelt and dropped my feet on the squishy ground so that I could rise and stand. I noted that I pitifully only reached his shoulder with my head. Whoa, wait am I…shorter than Alice? No, no that isn't possible. She's shorter. I tucked that horrible, and wrong thought away but my emotions had already registered with Jasper. He closed the door behind me and it brought him closer to me so that he was standing only an inch or two away and it stole any breathe I had been thinking about taking into my lungs. "What is it?"

"I had a moment where I actually thought I might have been shorter than Alice, that's all." I dismissed it. "I love the name. Is it your human one?" I asked him.

"Yes, I like it to but since Rosalie and I portray twins we decided that her last name would work better this time." Jasper told me, again threading our fingers together. I smiled happily and he sent a little of his own happiness my way which only made me happier.

"My human name is Nefertiti, well, it was for a while and then my husband made me change it to Neferneferuaten." I spoke and I realized that Jasper froze when I said husband.

"You were married?" His voice filled with what I think I can label as possessiveness. It's only fair to name it sense it was rolling off of him.

"Unfortuantely." I said flatly. "It was not a good or wanted marriage. I was a foreign princess that was promised to Egypt's next Pharoah. We married at fifteen. I forget which wife I was; I think it was the seventeenth." Even I could tell how bitter I was but Jasper's stance was still tight, just no longer possessive.

"Was it common to have more than one wife back then?" He asked. "Or was he just a bastard?" Jasper said his tone icy. I placed my hand on his chest, thrilling in the fact that I was touching him right over where his heart would have beat.

"No, it was just the Pharaoh. Don't worry about it Jasper he isn't alive any more, none of my kin are." I told him softly. "I didn't love him, and quite honestly I never even liked him." I ran my hand over his jaw, right over the little scar on it.

"As long as he treated you right." Jasper finally gave in. I blinked and refused to think about it because then he would feel my emotions and get angrier. Plus, I've refused to think about it for so long now that I found no reason to bring it up now when I was so happy with Jasper.

"Uh, right. So where are we going, exactly?" I asked Jasper, trying to steer the conversation away from my human life. He half smiled at me and pointed to the path.

"This is an abandoned tourist spot. For the humans, the trail ends soon, because a tree fell in the way but for us it leads to your surprise." Jasper drawled. I sighed, no matter how many times he spoke that accent just pulled me into his charm.

"It's not fair for you to use your accent to your advantage." I told him, though we started walking to the path which had greenery all around it, just like I liked it.

"Sorry, Belle." Jasper whispered the accent heavy in his words and he did not sound a bit sorry. "Or would you rather be called Nefertiti?" He asked me.

"Belle is better. I like it more because it's the name Charlie gave me, not my father who I rarely remember." I told him. I leant my head on the side of his shoulder as we walked, and I tucked my previously joined with his, hand in the crook of his raised arm. "Am I doing it right?" I asked him.

"Yes. How did you know what era I was from?" He curiously asked.

"When Esme gave me the tour of the house she pointed out your medals, the confederate ones. Also, your posture is one of a soldier. I looked up a few things on the computer this morning and sifted through my brain to try and remember how they acted then." I told him. I absently noticed that I left my purse in the car. Opps, had better not tell Charlie that I left his gift in the car.

"I'm ashamed to say that I did not think to do so. Is there anything that I might need to know?" He asked, staring me in the eyes. I felt him push me for the truth via emotions but I scowled at him and he stopped, sheepish.

"No, I don't believe so. In my day there wasn't any courting." I admitted. "For the nobles and the rulers if a man saw someone they wanted they merely made a deal with the father and that was it. The women didn't get a say in it. I'm not sure about the peasants though. I'm sure that they had some kind of different way to go about it." I thought briefly about it but I couldn't recall anything.

"In my time," Jasper said, probably guessing that I didn't want to talk about my past just yet. "When a man loved a gal they would bring her gifts and call on them. They would spend supervised time with them, or walks. We would escort the woman to dances that were held for different reasons. My mother confessed to me once while I was home on a short leave, that they found any reason they could to celebrate. She thought it was a secret but Papa knew about it and all the husbands merely indulged their wives." He was smiling and looking a little over my shoulder as he remembered something from a long time ago.

"I like it." I told him softly as I stared at the flowers that were coming up on the path. They were beautiful, different colors and they seemed to be all over the forest the farther we walked. I hadn't even noticed them until I finally looked away from Jasper. "It seems a lot more loving then going out to the movies. Though, I admit I am a movie fanatic." I confessed.

"Why?" He asked, curious now.

"Well, back in my day technology consisted of pieces of wood tied together with linen. Most of our days were centered on worshiping whatever god's we believed in. I've since realized that they didn't exist and I'm Christian now, but back then it was very…important. We believed that once the person died their Ka, the soul, lived on eternally. We focused on protecting the Pharaoh the most. He was the most important person in Egypt." I said and I could just see flashes of my old live, the simpler times.

"So movies, they are something that fascinates me. All kinds of technology remind me how far that the world has advanced, but also how lazy we are. Not that I can complain because I've become much too lazy for my own good." I said, a little amused. "It amazes me that we've had to make remote controls because we were too lazy to get up to turn the channels." I told him and up ahead I noticed the tree he was talking about. I could see why the human's didn't want to come this way any more. The tree was large, and the moss meant it had been here a long time. It would probably cave in if they weren't careful. This trail had probably become too hazardous for them anyways.

"Technology doesn't amaze me as much, but I did find it fascinating when they first came out with it." Jasper admitted and I smiled at him. "I was more…caught up in something else for awhile after my change and then I had to worry about drinking human blood." He explained. "It's hard for me, because I used to freely drink from humans. I didn't enjoy it though, because I could feel the fear and the helplessness that they felt as I fed. It was awful." He told me. I saw the torture in his eyes and I squeezed his hand in understanding. He blinked out of his reverie and looked at me.

"Why do you understand?" He asked, reading my emotions.

"For near on Fourteen hundred years I drank from humans before I found the diet that the Cullens support. I'm sure my finding of it was a little different than Carlisle's. I had stuffed myself in the ocean for four hundred years. I drained whales and other fishes the moment I couldn't stand it any more. It was horrible but I was glad I didn't have to kill humans anymore." I admitted to him. "But because I'd drunk from humans for so long it was too hard to be around them without thinking of drinking them dry. I promise thought the more you try, and the longer you are around them the easier it gets to ignore."

"That is a relief." He admitted after a moment of silence. "I figure with Edward's interest in Bella I might be around the human's a lot more than I want to be." Jasper said smiling a bit.

"Oh, is he as obsessed with her as she is with him?" I asked him, laughing.

"Yes, it's rather annoying, it's all he speaks about all the time. She's become a sore topic with our family." Jasper told me as we reached the tree, since we had been just walking, slow for even a human's measures; we had only just now reached it. I went to climb over it, wary of my none hiking boots but Jasper stopped me. "Allow me, darlin'." He said, moving closer. My breath hitched as he delicately placed his hands on my waist to lift me up but I could only stare into his eyes as he smiled at me.

I couldn't help it but to feel nervous as he moved closer and his chest touched mine, his body getting undeniably close to my own. "Belle." He muttered.

"Yes?" I breathed, unable to catch enough breath to say it louder. His scent intoxicated me and I felt as if I was flying because he was so close. My head had to tilt to meet his eyes since I was so short but I didn't mind as he bent his own head to smile at me, his eyes deliciously half-lidded.

"Can I kiss you?" He asked, and his voice was just as breathless as my own.

"Please." I begged, stepping on tip toes as that was all the encouragement he needed. His arms slid from my waist up so that he could wrap me in his arms and sweep me off of my feet, so I was as tall as him. My body was pressed against him tightly and I loved the feel of his skin, barely parted from mine by the cotton of our clothes, the muscles of his hidden from me by something so thin. He leant in whole heartedly and when my icy lips met his own I felt like I could have stopped that moment to live in it, to remember the feel of Jasper's soft lips as they caressed my own. I wanted to remember how they fit so perfectly against mine and how my arms felt as I placed a hand on his cheek and another on his shoulder to steady myself.

I didn't want it to end, and it didn't have to because neither of us had to breathe. I was in heaven and I never wanted it to stop. Jasper's arms tightened around me and that was the only warning I got before I was back on my feet and he ended the kiss with a small peck to remind me of the chaste beauty of our first.

I opened my eyes, they had closed in the moment and I touched my lips with the tips of my fingers they just felt so tingly, I felt so tingly. I can't describe how happy he had just made me.

"I know." Jasper muttered, brushing the hair away from my eyes. "Me too." He muttered and he leant down to bury his face into my hair. I couldn't help the blissful smile that was on my face, or the hand that crept up to his hair. After a moment he snorted into my hair. I giggled at the cold air that blew my hair out and tickled the skin of my neck.

"What?" I asked him. "What's so funny?"

"You touched my hair." He said bluntly. I blinked and pulled back so that I could see his face. His eyes were open wide and he had the most gorgeous smile, unprecedented by the pulchritudinous of the rest of his smiles. Oh, crap big words! I'm being dazzled again! I didn't care, all I wanted was for him to always have that smile. It seemed to tell me that he cared for me that the kiss had meant as much to him as it had meant to me. I felt waves of foreign emotion as Jasper sent me his emotions, bliss, happiness, lust, love, even the feeling of ecstasy.

"Wow." I muttered and buried my face into his chest. His arms were around me now, pulling me closer. "You know…" I started, my voice muffled by his shirt. "I haven't been kissed since I was turned into a vampire." I told him lightly. "I'm glad that you were my 'first'." I teased lightly, running my hands down from around his shoulders, along his chest until I could tuck them into his jacket and around his hips.

"Well, I'm glad to be of service, ma'am." His accent came out heavier than usual, it was rough and untamed, and it spiked my lust. I was embarrassed to say that it really turned me on. "Why are you embarrassed?" He asked, his accent sadly leaving for a bit.

"Nope, no reason. Just a random thought." I said, tugging out of the embrace and looking at the tree thoughtfully. "So, soldier boy, you going to help me over this tree?" I asked him, looking back to him from the rotten log. He looked like he wasn't going to let it go for a moment.

"You shouldn't be embarrassed around me." Jasper said, stepping back to me, making me separating myself from him useless. "I think you're beautiful." He muttered to me. I smiled, my eyes hooding.

"Thank you." I muttered, even though that completely wasn't it, it made me happy to think he thought I was beautiful. "I think you're rather handsome yourself." I tried to compliment through my haze and he chuckled.

"Yes ma'am." He said and I swatted him for his conceded remark. He retaliated by replacing his hands on my hips and lifting me up. He sat me down on top of the large tree trunk and I was tentative, testing the ability it had to hold my weight. I smiled down at Jasper as he to eyed the tree. Just to freak him out I fell back over the side of the tree, and when I was out of his sight I flipped to stand on my feet, smashing myself against the tree.

"Belle!" He called and I heard the crush of the leaves as he jumped over the tree. The next millisecond, luckily my eyes can keep up, he was over the log. I watched as he straightened from his crouch, confused when he didn't see me lying on the ground. I leapt at him, climbing on his back, locking my legs around his hips and holding on to his neck, giggling.

"Got ya." I taunted him. His head whipped around to look at me, surprised quite a lot and then he started laughing loudly. His happiness was contagious and I laughed along with him, pleased that he was happy. "I love your laugh." I commented when we had both calmed down. I kissed his prominent cheek bone, right next to his lovely eyes.

"I love your smile." He told me and I unwrapped myself from his back so that I could grab his hand and tug him farther along the path, a little faster this time because I was anxious to see what he was wanting to show me.

"Well, yours isn't so bad either, star shine." I smiled, kissing him on the cheek for his comment. He smiled again and I couldn't stop the answering smile from attacking my face.

"Star shine?" He asked me.

"Well, you get to call me 'darlin' so I'm going to find a nickname for you." I told him, looking forward for a moment. When I turned back he had a flower in his hand, it was rather large. He held it up and then stuck it behind my ear, holding my hair back. My smile turned soft and I touched it lightly with my fingers. "Thank you." I muttered.

"Thank you for scaring me." Jasper told me, lightly touching my chin with his finger as we continued walking. "I thought you'd fallen."

"Sorry, I just couldn't resist the temptation." I responded.

"That's all right. I'll find away to return the favor." He promised and I laughed again.

"I'd like to see you try. You'd have to catch me first." I told him, hopping a few feet away from him, farther up the path. His eyes sparkled with the challenge and I realized belatedly that Emmett might not be the only one who liked challenges. To prove my point Jasper playful growled and started after me. I squealed and started off running, following the faint trail, which humans wouldn't have seen.

I was fast enough but Jasper was quickly gaining. I felt the rush of being chased and I jumped up, bouncing off of the trees, even swinging from a few branches. I heard Jaspers laughter before he jumped, meeting me in the air, and taking me to the ground. He wrapped his arms around me, needlessly protecting my head from the fall as we rolled to a stop outside a thick part of the brush.

"Jasper!" I squealed as I felt his lips on my neck. He was on top now and I rolled us over lightly.

"Belle!" He mocked, hands on my hips and I knew if I was human right now my cheeks would be flushed from the adrenaline. He reached up with his hand and pushed my hair back. I was amazed to feel the flower still in my hair. I hastily got up off of him, lending him a hand up which he took, not letting it go when he grasped it. Instead he tugged me over to the wall of brush.

"We're here." He said, sweeping his arm to push the large ferns out of the way. I walked beside him and into a beautiful place. It was magnificent, the cliff. It wasn't just a cliff. There was a small lake, which held little, tiny, bright fish in it that were happily swimming around. The cliff looked out and I could see all of Forks. The cliff ran along, curbing farther away so that on the other side I could see a complete view of the forest, a river even curved around the mountain.

"Jasper, it's beautiful." I muttered, walking farther into it. I looked back at the brush and there I could see the indent in the foliage where we'd come from but everything was covered in vines that had small white flowers growing in bunches on them. I looked back to the cliff and I could see a large lake beneath it, with crystal clear waters. It came to me that if it rained a lot that this place would become the top of a small waterfall.

"I found it when we first moved to Forks. I was hunting and I got distracted from the view." He whispered. For a moment he stepped onto the rocks near the lake, right where the river was feeding in to it. Then he came to me, moving my hair over to one of my shoulders. "It was a place I could go where I didn't have to feel everyone else's emotions, where no humans were. I could sit here and enjoy being myself." I smiled and turned to him on my tiptoes.

"Thank you, for sharing it with me." I whispered, hugging him peacefully.

"Your welcome darlin'." Jasper whispered back, tugging me closer. He paused for a moment, looking me directly in the eyes. "May I kiss you?" He asked again. I curled my hands into his jacket and pressed right up against him.

"Jasper, you don't have to ask." I told him, bringing my own lips to his. I was surrounded by the bliss. His lips moved with mine and I sighed into the kiss as his hands wove around me, cradling me to him. I lifted my hand tangling it on his soft, orgasm-inducing hair. When he separated from me his hair was tussled, and the flower in my hair was barely hanging on. I'm sure my face was giving away my dazed feelings.

"I'll remember that." He commented. I smiled happily but jumped away in surprise when I heard a phone go off. He laughed at me, though I know he jumped to. I glared at him, playfully before reaching into the pocket of my jeans.

'If you don't split now, you won't catch the movie and he'll feel bad. xAlice' I pouted at the screen and Jasper stepped to my side, trying to read it. I covered up the screen though, clicking it off.

"Well, time to go catch that movie." I announced, not wanting him to feel bad about us not catching the movie. At least, I knew there were good side effects to having a friend who can see the future.

"It was Alice, wasn't it?" Jasper said, his eyes narrowing and his eyebrows drew together. "What did she say?" He badgered me.

"Nope! Not a chance!" I squealed, taking one last glance around the beautiful spot that Jasper had shown me. "I'll race you back to the car?" I asked Jasper sweetly. He frowned at me, so I jumped a little to peck him on the lips. I turned with a giggle and started running back to the car. I heard Jasper's laugh and then he was speeding after me. It didn't take long, because we were both trying to out run the other, but I did have to skid to a stop when I saw the car there. Jasper came and stopped beside me, scowling.

"You had a head start." Jasper complained, though he was smiling.

"Nope, don't be like that. I gave you fare warning, you were just distracted by my beautiful looks." I said, striking a pose with my butt out and my hand on my hip. Jasper's eyes flitted down to look at my butt and I was sure I would have been blushing, no doubt about it. "Hey! Eyes up here!" I said, pulling his chin up and I grinned at him. "I told my Daddy that you were too much of a gentleman to stare at my butt. That's the only reason I got out of the house with these jeans on." I told him, tapping him on the chin, amazed at the small amount of stubble there.

"Well, we wouldn't want to make you a liar would we?" Jasper whispered, moving forward to open my door and I smiled in thanks before hopping in. He was in his side of the car in a flash. I noticed that it was sunset outside now as he started back off, going rather fast. I felt my mouth twitch in amusement.

"What?" Jasper asked and I gathered up enough courage so that it was me this time that tangled our hands together. I set our joined hands in my lap and leant over so I could rest my head on his shoulder.

"Nothing, I just thought that maybe it wasn't just me who enjoyed driving fast." I told him. "I guess it's a vampire thing." I stated.

"I guess so. I've never really noticed before." Jasper wondered.

"Yeah, I know but I figured out quickly that when you mingle with humans, and I mean my kind of mingling, then you learn a lot about the differences between humans and vampires." I told him. "You've no idea how hard it was for me the first time Renee tried to feed me baby food." I said, scrunching up my nose at the memory. Jasper's fast driving was getting us back to Forks quickly where a small theatre was waiting for us.

"Can you eat human food? I noticed you eat during the day, at lunch." Jasper was curious. I chuckled at his questioning.

"Yeah, I do, it just gets dissolved in my stomach and turns into venom. Or that's what I'm guessing, seeing as I didn't split my stomach open to see." I told him. "The worst part that I learnt about myself was when I didn't get my….weekly visitor." I said and Jasper's shoulders straightened and he moved around a little. "Oh, hush, you're too old to be scared about talking about a woman's period. Honestly!" I said, slapping his arm lightly. "I was taken to the doctor's office, where I had to dazzle the doctor away from trying to take blood but I did learn that I can't have children, even in human form." I told him.

"Why not?" He asked, curious. I raised my eyebrows and lifted my head to look at him.

"Well, my body doesn't have any of my natural blood left in it. Any blood that I do have is animal blood, so I can't make eggs, which you need human blood to make. So, I don't have the proper equipment I guess you could say." I explained to him. "I went into a fit after that. Luckily for me I made it away from the family before I broke down and started attacking everything in sight. I destroyed someone's house. It was on the news." I told him and smiled. "They blamed it on the horrible structure. The company who made the house was sued because there could've been someone inside." I told him.

"I'm sorry." He responded to me.

"Na, I'm over it now. I've decided that I don't need children anymore. I had six when I was human, a seventh which was a son-in-law." My thumb brushed against his knuckles as he looked at me. "Yeah, that's right I was a mother. Parenting was weird for the Queen, I barely saw any of my kids. Meketaten was the only one I really got to see, and that was because she was the oldest. I was preparing her to get married but we were close until she died." I said but I was looking out the window. I could remember all of it, her horrific screams, my screams and falling apart when Amenhotep told me right before he took me again, with force.

"Did you ever see them again, once you were changed?" Jasper asked me. I was glad that he wasn't jealous that I'd had children with some other man before.

"Yes. After I was changed…and I drained my asshole husband I returned to Egypt and changed my name so that I could succeed Amenhotep on the thrown. I ruled a long time, and then Tutankhamen, my step-son, demanded to be changed and I changed him. He in return stole my thrown. Well, I took care of that." I told Jasper, absently. Really I was remembering the burn as his venom was sucked from him and into my body. I remember his screams, the horrific screams.

"Hey," Jasper muttered, bringing me back to the present. "It's all right. It's over now." He told me, squeezing my hand. I blinked and all the memories were tucked back into the box in the back of my head labeled, 'Don't Open'.

"Sorry." I said and searched for something to say. "What did you think of me when we first met?" I asked instead. "When I was human." I specified. He smiled at my abrupt change of subject and he fed me happy emotions to cheer me up.

"I remember I first glanced at you when I realized you were the new girl. Everyone in Forks had been talking about you for weeks so naturally we were curious. I thought you were rather stunning for a human but I didn't think much more about it. Then you tripped. I was forced to look closer at you. I saw you wore contacts, when you glanced up at me and I noticed all the little things. I noticed you were favoring your knees because you'd hit them. I remember being thankful that neither of you had started bleeding. That's when I noticed that I didn't thirst for your blood." He explained. I snorted.

"Well I wasn't enamored with you when I first saw you either." I mock complained and Jasper chuckled, dazzling me with it. "I adored you the minute you opened your mouth and I heard your voice." I said moving a bit of his hair behind his ear so I could see all of his face while he was driving. I'd noticed that we were in Forks now, and we'd be at the Theatre within the minute.

"I'm glad to hear my voice pleases you ma'am." Jasper drawled. I sighed and hugged his arm.

"Yep, it pleases me all right especially when you tuck on ma'am or darlin'." I tried to imitate his accent and I was all right but no where near as beautiful as his accent.

"I enjoy your accent to." He told me, stopping the car in a parking spot right outside of the theatre. "It's very distracting, because I've never been to Egypt, to much sunlight." He told me, looking at me expectantly. I snorted.

"Well, I've actually lost most of it from traveling for so long. This is a little American rolled in Ancient Egyptian. The accent in Egypt's different now, weirder to me." I said, going to open the door but he was there in an instant. I remembered the humans in that moment and I quickly changed into my human form, after all I did tell them that I was on a date with Jasper. It wouldn't do if they reported back that some beautiful person was with my date. I grabbed my purse this time, and shielded my eyes when I got out, because they were still golden.

"What is it?" Jasper asked me, hovering over me concerned.

"My eyes, they are the only thing that doesn't change when I turn." I clarified for him. He responded by helpfully putting his arm around my neck and tugging me closer to him as he walked us into the theatre. I smiled, happy that he would help me. Most people probably would have looked around to try and just be more suspicious. Plus, I could smell the grass, leather and musk that is Jasper. I know that we are made to bring humans in, the smell, the face, and even the sparkly skin but Jasper could have drawn me in and killed me in a heartbeat and I wouldn't have cared as long as the last thing I smelled was that scent.

"Thank you." I muttered.

"My pleasure, ma'am." Jasper said. I'm thinking that he's purposefully adding that on to his sentences now. If only I could muster up a bit of denial but let's face it he could end the sentence 'I'm going to kill you, ma'am' and I would have allowed it without a thought. I tugged myself away from him because there were only a few people in the theatre, it being Thursday and all.

"Now excuse me while I go put my contacts in." I said, going on my tiptoes and kissing him chastely on the lips. He kissed me back but we couldn't kiss like we didn't need to breathe, because in this form I did need to breathe. "I could die happy now." I muttered, getting one more peck before I walked off to the bathroom.

No one was in the bathroom so I took a moment to stare at my own eyes. I couldn't see all the little crystals in my eyes like I could in Jasper's. What I saw were a few little green specks, not enough to matter or to make me a freak among vampires but I knew they had been there a long time. That's the thing about sucking all of a vampire's venom into your own system, it changes you. Thankfully my change was for the better.

I put my contacts in, almost crying because it was so awful. I hate this part. No matter how many times I do it, it unnerves me to stick my finger to my eye. I mean, yuck? I rolled my eyes a bit, to make sure they wouldn't shift when I moved them. Then I happily began prancing out the bathroom door to go to Jasper who was looking at the movie choices. I tucked my arm in his without even looking away from the choices.

"Have you decided what you want to watch?" I asked him, curiously.

"How about…Dark Shadows?" He asked. "It should be funny, seeing as it's about a vampire." I looked at the poster and I squealed.

"Yes! Johnny Depp! I don't know how I missed it. The opening week must have been last week." I pulled the none protesting, but very confused Jasper to the ticket stand. We stood in line behind an elderly couple and I noticed something that made me smile. The elderly man stood almost exactly like Jasper, his shoulder's straight and his whole demeanor screaming out that he was from the Army. The woman was hanging on his arm, just like I was.

"Look…" I muttered pointing to them. "That's us, in elderly form." I said. Jasper was silent for a moment before he smiled.

"Yeah, I guess so." He muttered. The elderly couple moved away, having gotten their tickets. They were chatting together and I chuckled when the old woman hit the man for a dirty comment about her ass.

"Yeah, that's us." I snorted before moving forward to the ticket stand. I glanced at the times and realized that we could just catch the previews for the Dark Shadows; it was no doubt a feature in why he chose Dark Shadows. I noticed Jasper had frozen up a little bit, now that we were around humans again. I thought that I maybe shouldn't have left him here by himself, it probably made it worse. His eyes searched out mine, no doubt feeling the guilt that I was radiating but I turned back to the ticket master who was waiting, while staring straight at Jasper.

"Uh, Hello?" I asked her, making her reluctantly turn to glare at me. I felt a spike of jealous annoyment but Jasper pressed closer to me, and I felt him give me a shot of bubbly cheerfulness. "I'd like two tickets to see the next showing of Dark Shadows." I said, elbowing Jasper for the cheerfulness. He frowned then looked at the girl. Then I watched as her glare turned into awed attraction – and not at Jasper.

"Yes, ma'am," I was shocked as she leant forward with the two tickets, showing me her bosoms. Oh, I'm going to throw up. "That'll be 14.38." She said, resting her head on her hand. I screwed up my face, reaching for my purse but Jasper had already flashed a Visa card into the spot. I elbowed him.

"Cut it out, I'm going to throw up." I joked, burying my face in his arm for a second to giggle. When I turned back the girl was staring at me in bewilderment. She was quick to scan the card and get us our tickets, probably ashamed that she'd been attracted to a woman. That poor girl was probably going to be left wandering about her sexuality and all I could do was laugh while taking the tickets. "Thank you." I said, tugging the silently laughing Jasper along with me. "That was horrible, you've probably screwed up the girl. She's going to be questioning the very bases of herself now." I exaggerated.

"But it got you to laugh." Jasper muttered, kissing the side of my head. I had no argument for that and honestly, who needs one. If I could have done that to make him laugh I would have.

"Yes, I suppose it did, didn't it?" I said looking for the correct theatre which had been on the tickets.

"Do you want popcorn, or candy?" Jasper asked, glancing at the concession stands. I thought about it. But if I ate something, when he kissed me he might have to taste it and human food tastes nasty when you're a vampire.

"No thank you, I'm full enough." I said, smiling at him before tugging him into theatre two. The place was almost deserted because again, it was in the middle of the week. There were two couples up front but I wanted to sit up top, right in the middle. Jasper followed me there. I sat down in the seat and sighed as they were plushy and warm. I guess when you are the only theatre in town you get enough money to make the theatre one people would enjoy.

Jasper was watching me with curiosity. "What?" I asked him and he smiled at me.

"You felt pleasure…from a seat?" He asked me. I rolled my eyes.

"Most theatre's don't have good seats. It's nice when they are really good. It means I don't have to worry about my back hurting during the movie." I pulled at the arms of the chair and I was pleasantly surprised when it came up. I stared at Jasper for permission and he knew what I wanted, going so far as to tug me over to him. I curled into his side as he put an arm around my shoulders, not to shield my eyes this time but to hold me close and I felt a warm fuzzy feeling in the bottom of my tummy. I pulled my legs up into the chair where I had been in.

"Yay. Now to the Johnny Deppness!" I exclaimed. Jasper chuckled.

"I take it you're a fan." He noted. I looked up at him and his eyes dilated a bit which let me know that I wasn't the only one affected by our close proximity. It only made me happier when he bent his head and took my lips in a rougher kiss then our firsts. I curled my own hand around his neck and moved as close as possible when his tongue brushed against my mouth. I let it in eagerly to let my own tongue meet it. He tasted like the best ice cream in the world. It was cold, and my tongue was warm from the human form and I heard him moan from the heat.

"Hey, knock it off the movie's starting!" One of the couples in the front row hollered. I broke away from Jasper just in time to see the woman screech at the man.

"Don't ruin their moment! At least he kisses her!" She screeched, throwing her popcorn at him and storming out of the theatre. I watched in dazed amusement before I turned back to Jasper so I could snuggle with him for the movie.

Jasper's hand threaded into my hair to rest, the other on my knee because my legs were still curled up. I rested my head on his chest and one hand on the one on my knee and the other on his outer thigh, to keep my balance.

The movie was wonderful, Jasper and I were laughing at both the funny parts, and at the parts that were so not vampirish that they were supposed to be. I have to say even though the movie was preposterous Johnny Depp did rock the whole fake vampire look. If it had been any one else I couldn't have liked the movie even a little. At some points Jasper managed to actually distract me from the glory that is Johnny Depp with his lips and his tongue. I thought it was rather brave because back in his day they didn't touch each other until after they were married, but that was later when I wasn't swept up in him.

The movie was over now, and Jasper and I were holding hands as we walked out of the theatre. "It was a good movie. You know it's better than the usual vampire movies. I liked the look they put together for it though." I said remembering the hair that looked permanently stuck to his head. The way his skin was so pale, the coffin. I giggled at that memory.

"Are you sure you didn't just like the way Johnny Depp looked?" Jasper caught on to my thoughts. I smiled up at him, prepared to tease him. I gave an over exaggerated sigh.

"I have to say, if I ever met him, you could have some serious competition there." I told him, pointing at the picture outside of the theatre in the 'Now Showing' slot. Jasper growled and grasped the back of my head, pulling me closer. I sighed as he kissed me passionately, and I kissed him deeply back. He released me after a moment, so that I could breath.

"Nope, nevermind." I said. "Your point has been proven." I wobbled to my door but again Jasper was already there with it open. "You know if you don't calm it down one of these humans is going to notice." I sung, getting in the car. He bent down to look into the car door.

"Not if they aren't looking." He said but this time he walked around the car at human pace after he shut the door. I smiled when he got in and started the car, pulling it out of the parking lot.

"You never know, they could end up like Bella. They'll see it in a window or something; I don't know and get over obsessed with you. You know I don't share well." I said growling a little, playfully at the mention of someone being obsessed with Jasper.

"Calm down darlin'." Jasper said, matching his words with sending me calming emotions. "I'm only here for you." He looked from the road to me, being stopped at a stop light. I felt the blush as it flooded my cheeks.

"Good, because I'd have to rip this imaginary person to pieces if she touched you." I commented, leaning on his shoulder. The night was getting to my human form, and Jasper could tell. He sped up the car a bit so we could get to my house faster for me. I smiled at his concern.

The rest of the ride was silent, especially compared to the none-stop talking we'd been doing all night. It wasn't uncomfortable at all, it was just a restful I'm-enjoying-your-presence silence. I frowned when he pulled up into the driveway of my house. While he got out, regular speed, I looked to my house. The light was on downstairs, so my dad must still be up. I glanced at my watch and realized it was Nine forty-five. We made it just in time.

I got out of the car, and Jasper walked me to the door. I smiled when he gathered me up in his arms. "Thank you, I had a wonderful time." I whispered, my nose skimming his when he picked me up so that I was face to face with him. His eyes flitted to my lips and I smiled as he opened his mouth. "Just kiss me." I told him, already knowing what he had been going to ask. He wasn't even offended, he just kissed me senseless.

I vaguely heard the door open before Charlie cleared his throat. I blushed scarlet and broke the kiss. Jasper quickly put me down, smiling at my father like we hadn't just been caught kissing on the porch of my house. "Yes?" I asked Dad glancing at my watch. "He still has five minutes." I noted. Dad raised an eyebrow at my punctuality.

Jasper chuckled and kissed my cheek once. "Good-bye Belle. I'll see you at school." He told me and I hung on to his hand until I had to let go when he was to far away. I sighed and stayed on the porch with Dad until his car was gone around the corner. Then I turned to Dad.

"He's the one." I announced. "That was the best night of my life." I sighed out, just so happy. Dad looked uncomfortable but I spun my way into the house and into the kitchen to grab a Zebra cake and some chocolate milk before bed.

"Hold on there, it was just your first date." Charlie chuckled at my enthusiasm.

"Yes but who on their first date, shows their date a beautiful view of all of Forks, and then takes you to the movies, and actually doesn't care that you are drooling over Johnny Depp?" I asked him, leaving out the supernatural chase of amazement that we had in between. Yes, I know what you're thinking but I liked naming things and I thought that described it just fine.

"A gay." Charlie noted. I swatted his arm and he rubbed it, scowling. "Just…slow it down. You've only been on one date, it's not like he's your boyfriend." I slowed to a stop, frowning. He was right, he wasn't my boyfriend yet. I felt determination flow through me. Well, to hell with that. I spun around to him, from where I had been heading upstairs to get some sleep.

"Oh but he will be." I stated, seriously. Then I realized that Charlie was panicking. I rolled my eyes. "Honestly Daddy, it's okay." I told him, going down the few steps I'd made it up.

"I just got you back and it seems like he's taking you away already." Charlie muttered. I hugged him.

"Dad, I'm still here, aren't I?" I asked him. "It's going to be fine, I promise." I assured him before going up the stairs before turning around to him. "You know I love you right, Daddy?" I asked and he swipped his hand over his eyes and I realized he was crying.

"Yeah, yeah, I love you to sweetheart." He said, shuffling in to the living room, probably to turn off the light and the TV. I went up the stairs and I stared at Bella's door and realized that Edward was already in there with her.

"You better be a good boy, Edward Cullen because if your scent is anywhere near her, I'll break your hand off." I threatened. I heard a shuffling so he let me know he got it. I walked into my own room, tugging off the white shirt and the under armor as I went. I wiggled out of my pants, tugged off my jewelry and my boots before diving into the bed. God, it was good to sleep.

**I feel really bad about just leaving off where I did. So this is an important part in the story, their first date. I hope you enjoyed it. I'd like to apologize for how long it took. I didn't even write anything on this story while I was gone, this was just prewritten. I don't know if any of you guy follow my other story, but I told them this as well. There has been some family problems, and my Grandmother died of cancer and I'be been dealing with that. It's not an excuse for all of the time I've been gone. **

**Lately I've been only writing on my Ironman story because I had a lot of inspiration for that story. I'm not forgetting this story, but you know us authors, always late with the updates. I hope you guys enjoy this story!**

**Also, if you notice, the picture for this story is for this chapter, that's kind of how I wanted Jasper to look. Isn't it a great picture? *sigh* That Jasper….**


	10. The Morning After

"Belle!" I groaned as the earth shook. No, no, no.

"Gef sdfd!" I slurred at the earthquake, rolling away and curling against the soft pillow. Oh, pillow? Ah, shit. As soon as my thoughts began to clear my blanket was yanked from my body.

"Isabelle Swan! Get up this instant!" I heard Bella scream and Dad's laughing downstairs. I only groaned and flailed around for warmth. Then I was smacked on the ass and I squealed, rolling off the bed.

"Bella!" I screamed getting up to jump at her. She moved out of the way right on time and I went head over heels onto the floor. "Damn it!" I screamed, disoriented. Bella was laughing hysterically, falling onto my bed still holding my blankets. I grunted even as Charlie called up the stairs.

"Don't curse!" He shouted before I heard the door slam and he was gone. I looked at the clock and squealed. I rushed to my closet yanking out some clothes to wear while heading to a shower. I took a record breaking fifteen minute shower before I was out and about; I grabbed a pop tart, a sad excuse for a breakfast before I was out the door, heading to my car. Bella had already left, after making sure I was getting up. I can't believe that I'd overslept. I've never overslept before.

I crawled into the car giving myself a moment to rub my eyes which I had poked new contacts into, before I started speeding off. I was so glad that I hadn't bothered to grab my book bag yesterday in my hurry to go on my date. I started the car and headed off to Forks High, grimacing when I almost got rear ended on the way into the parking lot. I parked in my usual spot but I was rubbing my eye, because it was really bothering me. I groaned when I saw Mike heading my way.

I quickly started walking away. I don't know what he wanted but if he was by any chance asking me to Prom then I was going to kill him. I jumped when I heard Alice's voice call my name. I turned to see Alice and the Cullens smiling at me. I swear the whole parking lot had gone quiet. No, I wasn't exaggerating. I could understand, after all the only one other human they'd been seen even half talking to had been Bella.

I shuffled over to them, happy that I had a reason to ignore Mike. I grinned when Jasper bent down to peck me on the lips right there in front of his family and the humans. "Well, Good morning." I said, amused. "You do know you've probably given half this parking lot a heart attack, right?" I asked him. He didn't glance away from me, only smiled at me.

"Good morning." He said charmingly, grasping my hand and tugging me to walk next to him.

"Yes, good morning." Rosalie said and I heard the gossip central break back into talking with a passion. Rosalie talking to me pleasantly was apparently more shocking then Jasper kissing me.

"Morning, Cullens." I announced and Emmett was still pouting. "Oh shut up, Emmett. I won far and square." I told him. He growled.

"Jasper tripped me, how is that fair?" He yelled at me, really annoyed that he'd lost another thing against me. I guess losing at the baseball game and at dancing was really getting to him. It's not like he hadn't been beat before.

"You are a vampire, you should be able to dance and watch where you step." I taunted. "After all, you should have _some _grace." I pulled Jasper with me. "Walk me to class?" I asked him, ignoring the fuming Emmett who was in a heated argument with Rosalie now about his level of childishness.

"Yes, ma'am." Jasper replied, walking close to me. I grinned at his PDA and smiled when he sniffed my hair and frowned.

"You don't have the same smell as yesterday." He noted.

"Oh, I put on a perfume yesterday; it smelt like the sun and water right?" I asked him to make sure we were talking about the same thing. He nodded and pulled me out of the way of a group of boys who had been walking in the hallway opposite of us. "That was from a very old bottle of perfume that my real mother made me." I hinted about my old life. His hand squeezed mine.

"Thank you for wearing it for me." He softly thanked me, his hand untangling from mine so that he could place it at the small of my back as we stopped outside of my classroom. I tugged on his jacket so he would bend down and bless me with a kiss that I now crave all the time. He pulled back soon though when the tardy bell rang. I hadn't even known that the first bell had rung.

"I'll see you later?" Jasper asked me, moving to disentangle us from each other but I stopped him for a second.

"Be my boyfriend?" I asked him, smiling peacefully. Jasper blinked and smiled.

"I already thought we were." He answered, pecking my lips again before separating us despite my whine. "Sit with my family at lunch?" He asked me, his mouth twitching into a smile but his eyes were flicking from my eyes to my lips and back.

"Yes." I answered before taking a breath and opening the door to the classroom and trudging in.

"And why are we late, Ms. Swan?" My teacher asked. I stared at her for a second.

"Because I'm drifting back from heaven." I sighed and sat down. Angela giggled next to me.

It was gym when I began to worry. I couldn't find Bella any where. I'd thought she'd only been late for class but then I'd gone to the office and it turns out she was absent. I walked into the lunchroom filled with worry for her. Where could she be? What if she crashed?

"Belle?" Alice's voice cut in. I blinked and glanced up to smile at her.

"Sorry, I've been worried about Bella. She wasn't in class." I said, getting in line with her, seeing as Jasper was already sitting down. He flashed me a smile across the room and I heard some of the other girls sigh around us. I let out my own tiny sigh before shooting him a grin right back.

"Edward isn't here either." My eyes widened and so did Alice's as we realized what was going on. I filled my plate with a few stupid things that I wasn't going to eat anyways. I paid and talked in hushed tones.

"It's about time he told her." I told Alice. "They've been dancing around each other for months now and quite honestly I was about to kill him for watching her sleep." I admitted.

"Oh hush, I think it's romantic that he likes to watch her sleep." Alice argued.

"Oh shut up." I ordered, rolling my eyes. "It's not romantic, it's creepy. If I woke up and found Jasper staring at me while I was sleeping I would have ripped him a new one." I argued, putting my lunch down on the table as I took Edward's seat. Jasper looked at me funny, only having heard half of that sentence.

"What did I do?" He asked me. I snorted but my mouth twitched into a smile when he rested his arm around my shoulders.

"Alice things it's cute that Edward watches Bella sleep. I think it's creepy." I told him. He curled his lip at the thought. "I told her if you'd been doing it I would have ripped you a new one." I admitted.

"Well I suppose it's a good thing I'm not creepy like Edward." Jasper said, solemn. I rolled my eyes skyward. "After all, I wouldn't want to creep you out would I?" He asked me.

"Shut up, honestly it's weird and I think there is something wrong with him." I told everyone at the table.

"He shouldn't even be talking to her." Rosalie growled, crumbling some of the cafeteria cake. "It's bad enough that she's his singer but does he have to tempt himself? She's human; he's going to ruin this for our family if he bites her." Rosalie sneered. I felt a little offended that she talked about my sister but I understood.

"He better not bite her or I'll bite him." I told her. She looked at me in surprise.

"What?" I asked her. "You can be protective of your family and I can't?" I asked her, raising my eyebrow. She smiled and looked down, giving in to my logic. "Anyways, at least he's telling her now. I know its big news and everything but honestly I'm tired of her always trying to dig for information about you guys." I stuck a carrot in my mouth and grimaced before taking it out and putting it back in the plate. I watched as my venom devoured the carrot and fizzled out. Huh…

The bell rang and I blinked. I thought lunch was longer than that. I guess I was looking for Bella longer than I thought. "Don't worry, she'll be fine." Alice promised, putting her hand on my arm, lightly. I smiled at her before heading to class, Jasper with me since we had this class together.

"It'll be hard for me." He muttered to me absently. I was startled since I'd been enjoying the silence before class started. "When Bella knows. Her blood is intoxicating even to people besides Edward and it sounds like she's going to be around us for much longer than a few years." He said. I smiled at him, taking his hand in between the desks. I knew everybody was watching us but we were talking so lowly that they didn't have a chance of hearing.

"It's all right Jasper. You won't hurt her, ever and I know that." I told him scouting closer as he looked at me, his eyes vulnerable. "Jasper. I wouldn't have given you a chance if I thought you'd hurt Bella. I know that sounds harsh but I trust you with my whole heart. You won't hurt her." I told him. The teacher came fumbling in and we had to split to pay attention to her.

**I know some of you think that Jasper wouldn't act so in love as he is, but I honestly think that if they are mates, they would act like this. They've waited a long time, so why would they not want to let the other know?**


	11. The Bella

It was at exactly seven that I finally saw Bella. I did it dramatically. She came home and I was there in the hallway with the door closed and the lights off. She turned them on and shrieked when she saw me sitting there in a chair I had dragged into the hallway.

"Isabella Swan." I said smoothly, not giving her time to catch her breath. "You had best have a good reason, that doesn't involve one Edward Cullen, for worrying me." I told her, my hands stenciled in my lap. She looked kind of freaked out but I could hear Charlie chuckling upstairs.

"Uh, um I was with Edward…" She whispered, pulling me with her up into her room, away from Charlie's prying. "Belle, I know. Edward he told me everything, about…about your being a vampire and your… aging gift." She whispered and glanced intently at my face. I stopped for a moment to breathe it in. I guess there was that little part in my mind who still wanted Bella to be too innocent to know, to understand.

"And? I know you two didn't sit around discussing me." I said, flopping onto her bed, smiling. She tentatively, like I was going to explode at her, sat down with me before smiling. "Dish it out for me Bella." I ordered.

"It was awesome." She gushed, explaining how he told her. I scowled at some parts, like the rough way he grabbed her and took her up the mountain, not warning her about the speed. I also didn't like that he didn't bother to tell anyone where he was. Bella was happy though, and that's what mattered.

"…it's just the way he phrased it, you know, 'and so the lion fell in love with the lamb'." She gushed. We'd been talking for an hour about her obsession with Edward that had swiftly turned into love. I knew the feeling. Well, not the obsession but the love I knew…

Whoa…wait….calm down…not happening.

"I'm in love with Jasper Whitlock." I stated out loud, dumbfounded and horrorstruck all in one. I mean I knew I was enamored by him, so much so that I fantasized about his _hair. _It had never occurred to me that I might love him…because that would mean he was my mate and I don't want to get my hopes up, I don't want to love him and then find out he isn't the one. But he was just so…him that how could I not love him? How did I not see it before? I mean I didn't rush into the relationship, hell I had to go into a dance battle to win his date. Admittedly, he had probably known I was attracted to him, even before he knew that my human form and my vampire one were one and the same.

"You are seriously just now understanding this?" Bella asked me, being inappropriately exasperated. I grabbed her shoulders and looked her right in the eyes.

"Bella you don't understand. Vampires, we have mates. Mates are people that we love forever, someone we would die to keep alive even knowing they'd probably go right after us from loving us to much. Bella, he has to be mine. If he's not my mate…" I dropped that thought before I could get it started.

"Belle, he is your mate." Bella tried to assure me, but I knew she was only now getting this explained to her. It seems that Edward hadn't told her about it. Maybe he was just like me, and needed a little reassuring that Bella was it for him.

"How do you know?" I begged for any kind of reassurance that what I was feeling was the real deal.

"Because Belle I can see the way he looks at you." She said softly. "When you look away…You thought Edward was the only one who was staring at a Swan? I don't even know if Jasper knew he was doing it but his eyes were on you at all times, ever since we tripped together that day. His eyes say it all. Usually he looks like he's in pain but when he's standing with you it's like it all washes away." Bella smiled kindly at me. I couldn't help the fluttery feeling or the happy tears that spilt down my cheeks.

"I'm in love with Jasper Whitlock!" I exclaimed again, happier. "I'm in love with him!" I shouted this time before I got up off the bed and started Emmett's happy dance, and managed to look like a weird walrus who was making a snow angel. It got Bella laughing but I couldn't help the way my heart felt like it had grown in size and it was trying to beat out of my chest. Well…it was kind of painful, like my change but it was the good pain, the pain that I knew I was giving my heart over to someone who could crush it. But I had faith that Jasper wouldn't.

"Oh," I blinked, my mouth frowning.

"What now?" Bella asked me. I turned to her, sitting back on her bed. She really needed to get a bigger one but I guess the bed was big enough for her…or well Edward and her.

"I was just thinking….when I tell him…" I said and for once I felt vulnerable with my sister. Usually, I was the mature one. Yeah, I acted younger but I like to because I was changed when there was no acting like this and I enjoyed being me here. But it was nice to still know more than her and to know that she could come to me with any thing and I could help her. I've never needed advice before…and I've certainly never had anyone who I could trust with myself. But now I had Jasper. To bad I needed advice about him….but I'd never thought about Bella.

"What is it?" She asked, moving closer to me. Now she knew the danger she was in. Yeah, I'm an old vampire and I didn't think about blood even half as much as others but that didn't mean that I wasn't dangerous for her. She really does attract danger like a magnet.

"Nothing…I'm just happy that you finally know." I confessed. She grinned, like I'd just swept away some kind of worry of hers. "What? Did you think I wouldn't be happy?" I asked her incredulously. My arms were around her in a moments notice as I tugged her close to me. "Bella, you are the only human that I could see ever sharing this with."

"What about Charlie?" She asked me, still vulnerable.

"Please. I love Charlie, he's the best father I have ever had and will probably ever have, not comparing to Carlisle since I don't see Carlisle that way." I told her, pulling back to look her in the face to talk to her, I even moved a few inches back. "But despite that, I could never make him live this life of secrets. He's not quite over Renee, as you've seen and I can't see him taking another blow, like me leaving in the future, because I still don't die you know." I told her.

"Okay, I get it, I get it." She said pulling herself together.

"Honestly, Bella you should have more confidence in yourself." I told her, ruffling her hair.

"But we weren't talking about me, you changed the topic." She accused and I sighted.

"Guilty as charged." I said raising my hand then letting it fall to my leg. "It's just…he feels my emotions and I want my first time telling him to be romantic. How can I make it romantic if he already knows that I love him?" I asked her, flopping down on her bed. She lay down beside me as well so we were both staring at the ceiling. "How do I even know that I want to tell him yet? We've only been on one date. I don't want it to be to fast for him." I explained my fears. "It's just hard…I guess. I don't want him to be rushed into anything with me and especially if he doesn't feel the same, after all I am really old-"

"Belle!" She interrupted me as I slowly started working myself into a fit. I let out a long deep breath and groaned, rubbing my eyes. "Belle, you are beautiful and I know he already loves you. Even Edward didn't do what he did for you." She told me. I blinked and looked at her. "Jasper went on a date with you. He actually wanted to go on a date. I'm not in anyway saying that I want that, because Edward…sort of took me on a date but Jasper actually cared to take you on a date first." She told me but I snorted.

"Bella I asked him out on that date, actually I won a dance competition against Emmett where I got to go on a date with him in return." I told her, bitterly. Don't get me wrong, it was the best date in the world, and I loved winning his affections but I couldn't help the doubt.

"And what did he do?" Bella said after a moment when she got over the funniness of Emmett and I dancing it out.

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning to face her. She copied me and smiled humorously. Oh, she was enjoying this.

"Well, did he complain that he didn't want to be a prize or what?" She asked me. I thought back to the night. We'd cleared the living room out and we'd had Carlisle, the ever neutral coven leader, to turn on the radio and switch it to an anonymous channel. Then I got a little hope.

"Well….when Emmett was dancing, rather good actually, he…well…" I giggled and Bella's eyebrows pulled down in frustrated confusion.

"He did what?" Bella whined.

"He tripped Emmett while Emmett was about to power slide." I told her. Her face slackened for a moment before she burst into a fit of laughter. I couldn't help it because as much as just the image made her laugh, the actual memory made me laugh harder until we were both gasping for breath and clutching each other.

"Oh my God, if that wasn't proof that he wanted to go on the date, then you are screwed." She said, giggling still and I smiled at her.

"You always can cheer me up." I sighed at her, and she stopped giggling to smile at me.

"Well, you are my sister, it's my job to make sure you are happy. I may not be able to hurt Jasper if he hurts you, but I can try and keep you from making mistakes in your relationship." She told me seriously but then cracked a smile. "I can always have Edward hit him for me." She teased. "Cause it seems that you are having second thoughts."

"Na, as awesome as it would be to see Jasper kick Edwards ass, I don't think I need to see that just yet." I said and I laughed when my comment made her loyalty to Edward spike.

"Edward could kick Jasper's ass." She challenged. I grinned wickedly.

"Please. Jasper has experience from the military!" I scoffed at her.

"So! Edward can read minds!" She challenged and I narrowed my eyes playfully.

"Jasper has been around Edward long enough to control his thoughts. Even I've thought up some thing's and I don't even need to." I said, leaning on my elbow to look down at her. She frowned and I could see she'd already abandoned the playful argument to find something else new out.

"Why can't he read your thoughts if you aren't my biological sister? I mean it can't be just the Swans either because Charlie's mind can be read." Bella asked me. I thought about it for a minute.

"Maybe…" I said slowly. "Maybe it's because my mind is the only thing that doesn't change – well besides the eyes and ability to smell vampires – It could be that he might have been able to read my mind before I first changed my age. I guess that with every change I make my mind changes complexity and he just can't read it because my mind has been switched so many times." I theorized before blinking. "You know I've never really minded. I felt better that he couldn't hear my thoughts about Jasper." I grinned when she rolled her eyes.

"I was glad that he couldn't read my mind." She told me and I blinked because I'd ignored the context clues but it made since that his fascination with her had started because he couldn't read her mind. I was just glad that he hadn't thought that I was the gorgeous one. How awkward would that have been? "Probably for the same reason that you didn't want him reading your mind." She confessed. I grinned.

"Ou did you get dirty about Edward?" I asked Bella and she shoved me and I laughed at her flushed expression. "I knew you did. But all kidding aside, I do get it. But Bella, I know this is all pretty fast for you." I told her, finally getting completely serious. "I want you to know, that for me I knew you first, and you _are _my sister." I told her. True, Jasper as my mate meant everything to me but Bella meant everything to me to. I'd hate for them to be at odds at anytime because I already knew who I would choose without fault.

"I know, and you are mine." She promised, squeezing my hand but her face changed for a moment.

"What is it?" I asked her. She fidgeted a bit before seeming to give in.

"Will you show me, what you really look like?" She asked me. I was cautious and I pursed my lips.

"Are you sure? I don't know if now is the time for you to see that. Your psych has been through a lot. I don't think it could take me changing into a vampire in front of you to. You've known me for so long that it might frighten you worse then what Edward showed you." I told her. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable." I told her, sitting up completely and she followed me with a determined face.

"I want to see the real you." She told me stubbornly and I sighed before standing up.

"All right then." I told her. I looked at her, the trusting gaze and I slowly let the change take over. I felt every molecule of my body shift and become indestructible, my eyes became the golden color of an animal drinker and my hair grew longer. I opened my eyes, not having known I'd closed them to smile at her. She looked in awe and her hand was over her mouth. I knew how weird it looked when I was in control, when I made myself turn. I'd hate for her to see me when it forced itself out of me. Not only was it…painful but it was hideous and most of the time when I'm forced into vampire mode I lose control for some time after it.

"That was…" Bella breathed, standing up. I stayed unnaturally still, the only movement I made was with my eyes to warily watch her come closer. Her hand came up, to touch my cheek but she hesitated.

"It's all right Bella." I told her, grinning at her. She touched my cheek and I winked at her. "I'm still Belle, just a little more…well vampire." I told her, grinning.

"I feel so…" Bella said and I frowned when her face turned from awe to sadness. "I feel like, everyone is so beautiful and I'm just…plain Bella." She muttered, falling back on the bed. I moved and sat beside her, turning back to myself so she might be more comfortable with it.

"Bella, you are far better than me in everyway possible. You are caring, and everything I could possibly say to you but the only thing that I think will work is that no matter how many abnormalities I seem to come up with, you still want to be my best friend. For that, I owe you." I told her strongly. She smiled at me but I knew she didn't believe me. "Honestly, I don't know why you think so little of yourself when every boy in Forks wants to screw your brains out." Just to be funny I dry humped the air. Just like I planned, laughter spilled out of her mouth.

"Thank you for that." Bella said and I was pleased to see that she wasn't as self conscious.

"Well, I think we both need sleep. If you have something you want to tell me or ask me then it can wait." I told her, getting up and stretching a bit. "At least until morning that is." I said, yawning. I headed out the door calling a good night to Charlie who I passed on the way to the bathroom where I took a long, pleasant shower before plopping on my bed for the sweet release of sleep.

**I think this is the last one that I had prewritten. I'm not sure. I've been trying to write some more these last two days, because I finally got to see breaking Dawn. Let me explain this torture to you! See I was at my Grandparents house on vacation and they are really strict to the book Christians and I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with them 'subtly' trying to tell me I'm going to hell because I like a book about vampires and werewolves. So I couldn't go with her and I wasn't going alone to have all of those feelings hitting me. I met my mother and she took me to see it and .God. **

**There were so many broken feelings trying to crush me the entire movie, especially the SPOLIER vision that Alice had….evil little movie people. When the fight happened, or more when Alice broke away I was like **_**whoa **_**this isn't in the movie. At first I thought they were merely trying to expand the scene and then people started **_**dying. **_**Everyone in the theatre was screaming.**

**Anyways. What I really want to tell you is that I have found a new love. Garrett. There are no words for how sexy I find him. I don't care that he's a human drinker that vampire is one of the most delicious people that I've ever seen.**

**The point in me telling you this is because I was thinking that when I finish this series, or before that maybe, I was going to do a break off of this story where she ends up with Garrett. Would you read it? I would still make the whole Jasper thing…probably. XD**


	12. The Reawakening

In the morning I was very thankful that I'd turned in early. Bella didn't ask any questions, I'm guessing she was to shy to right now or too absorbed in her thoughts about Edward. That was okay though, I could wait but I was also trying to think of away to keep what I felt from Jasper. I'd try anything though. Maybe if I was lucky I could play it off that I was thinking about Bella. But no, he could probably tell between the different kinds of loves.

I was chewing on another zebra cake when I heard the horn outside. I glanced out and snorted when I saw Edward there, waiting for Bella. I was sure she'd seen him to but she wasn't fully dressed yet. So I grabbed my bag and opened the door, calling good bye to her. I nodded at Edward, quirking my lips into a smile and he returned it before I was in my car.

I refused to acknowledge him though as I started the car, ready to hurry to school. It was peaceful when I got there, but the Cullens weren't there yet so I was roped into standing with the gossip gang. Luckily Angela was there to. Eric speeds over to the group though with a stack of papers.

"Monte Carlo, that's it." He said, handing out paper flyers to us. I took one and made a face at it. Prom, Yay! I don't know about Monte Carlo is though. I mean, hey I don't know everything!

"Monte Carlo? That's our prom theme?" Jessica asked, disgusted. I wish I knew what it was so that I could plan my dress around it. I just hope Jasper wants to take me to prom. I'll just have to wait until he asks me. No doubt that if all else fails I could just stay at home and eat bucket loads of food and watch Bella complain about my lack of weight gain. Yeah because that's always been so much fun before when she didn't know I was a vampire.

"Gambling, tuxedos, and Bond, James Bond." Eric said, grinning at us, especially his date, Angela. She giggled and started pointing around with her camera like usual. I was just happy to know what it was about. I'd seen the James Bond movie, and I'd gambled before. I knew what time period they were talking about now. Maybe it would be easy to find the right dress. Suddenly I was distracted when I heard an engine purr. I looked around but Angela beat me to the catch.

"Oh, my God." She said, disbelieving. I watched as Edward walked around his pansy Volvo to open the door for my sister. Okay, so I still held a grudge on Edward but it was tiny and I didn't hate him, I swear. His cars still a pansy though. I watched Bella as Edward, having gone the extra mile on their debut and even worn dark sunglasses, put his arm around her and walked her through the parking lot with all of us staring. Bella barely managed to smile at me and wave through her blushing. I glanced and saw the other Cullen and Hale members sitting in there cars. They were all tense and Jasper just looked unnaturally tense with his back straight like that in Rosalie's tiny car.

I strolled over to them just as I heard Edward's passing comment to what I'm sure was all of us. "I'm breaking all the rules now anyway. Since I'm going to hell." I snorted and he glanced at me with a smirk, telling me without words that it wasn't me that he was mad at. I strolled casually over to the still tense and motionless Cullens. Jasper hadn't even realized that I'd come up to him, because I was behind him so I bent down and kissed him on the lips. He couldn't have tensed up more, as his back was already rigid but he did kiss me back after he realized who was kissing him.

"Wow." I said as I stood straight and all of the Cullens looked at me. "I have to ask, did any of you by chance, last night, tell him that he was going to hell?" I asked about the comment. Rosalie growled and opened the door almost a little to hard, nearly breaking it. None of the humans noticed though because they were staring at the way the others went. Then I realized that some of those humans were looking at me to. Oh, now the gossip begins. Jasper and I came out yesterday so I don't see what the big deal is.

Maybe it's because all the Cullens didn't look like they hated me. Though they sure did look like they wanted to murder Bella. I smiled as Jasper jumped out of the car, not waiting for Alice to open her door as he was sitting behind her in the two door car. He scooped me up into his arms and I squealed as he kissed me again, so passionately in front of the group of humans. I quickly forgot about that though when I felt that fuzzy feeling starting. So I pushed it and myself away. Jasper looked questioning, as he set me down but I winked. "We are at school, Jasper." I excused. He pouted but Emmett was there in an instant.

"Yeah, Jasper, we don't all want to see you making out with our little southern Belle." He teased, Rosalie still fuming under his arm. I knew this performance from Edward only really made her angrier about Bella. Now, if it ended wrong, it would affect all of them, not just Edward. I felt bad and a little angry but there was nothing that I could do for the situation. I wasn't going to force Edward or Bella to break up, not only would that be hypocritical but it would also be pointless. What is meant to be is meant to be and would always be.

I sighed and clasped Jasper's hand as the bell rung for class to start. "Come on, Jasper, it'll work out in the end." I told him, smiling at the other Cullens as we said our goodbyes. Jasper wrapped his arm around my waist as we went up the steps and to the school for class.

"Are you all right?" Jasper asked me, frowning down at me. I'm guessing my feelings were off the hanger because I was trying to not think about the way I loved Jasper's hand on my hip.

"I'm fine, just…thinking." I said, smiling up at him. He frowned for a second before bending and kissing me. I was quick to recuperate it and any tension that I might have caused before was gone as he picked me up by my waist and kissed me with a passion that actually shouldn't be displayed in the middle of the hallway. I broke from the kiss again, this time having better control of myself. "Jasper!" I smiled at him firmly. He grinned at me and set me down. I knew that all the students had stopped to stare. He was always so very quiet that I wasn't really that surprised that everyone was watching us walk away like we were the sign of the apocalypse. I'm sure if it had been someone else that was in my position I would have already went into Cardiac Arrest by now.

When we got to my classroom and we had to stop I sighed and pulled myself away from Jasper to smile at him. He, in return, smiled that smile that told me just how southern he was. It tilted on the side of his face like he was trying not to smile but was anyways. I couldn't help the fluttery feeling but I sure as hell could kiss him and run. I walked into the classroom, despite his confused expression. I'd not been kidding. I kissed him and ran.

The teacher looked approving, because I wasn't late today and Angela looked mischievous but she wouldn't press for answers like I was dreading Jessica doing. Thankfully I wouldn't have to deal with Jessica at lunch because I knew I was sitting with the Cullens. Bella though? She would probably find a way for Edward and her to sit alone because there was no way that Rosalie would let them sit near her.

And I was right. The minute I was in the lunchroom I could sense Rosalie's anger. She wasn't being very subtle, and I didn't have to be Jasper to tell what was making her angry. She was glaring at Bella's back like the world was going to end and it was Bella's clumsy feet that had caused it.

I wasn't walking with anyone, Bella having walked with Edward when he picked her up from gym. I had sighed because I could already see that we weren't going to be as close as before. I wouldn't get to see her as much because Edward was there. I was dreading seeing Jasper again, because he was probably wondering why I had ran into the classroom like I had.

I decided not to get anything for lunch and avoid the situation with Jasper for a moment by sitting next to Bella and sighing. "Bella, Bella, Bella." I said, staring out the window dramatically. She looked at me weirdly.

"What?" She asked. I looked at Edward then her.

"I knew you were a drama Queen in the inside. I've been telling you for years that you needed to give in. I'm glad you finally have. Though I have to say the…." I glanced at the Cullens, all of which were now looking at us. "Manner of which you came out was rather frivolous." I said. Edward was staring, amused but Bella flushed and elbowed me in the side. I whined at the sharpness of her elbow but smiled.

"If all you're going to do is tease me then you can go back to your boyfriend." She told me, teasing but I knew that she wanted to be alone with Edward. I sighed, apprehensive of having to hold my feelings in while I was around Jasper. Of course, Bella being so perceptive she knew what I was avoiding. "You're going to have to tell him eventually. There's no way that's going to be a secret." I winced because I knew that Jasper could hear her.

"Ah, marvelous, spectacular, really. Thanks for that." I told her and her eyes widened but she stopped herself from looking back at the Cullens because she knew she'd be given glares from Rosalie for it. "I'll get you back someday." I teased her. Edward was trying to let us converse but I knew he wanted me to leave. I rolled my eyes. "All right. I get it. No one wants Belle over here. That's okay, because she didn't want anything but to tell you that you left your sock in the gym room in your hurry to see Edward here." I told her. She flushed and I grinned at my revenge before I stood up, wary of that elbow of hers.

I walked to the Cullens table, humming a tune that I couldn't remember what was from…why did it remind me of Oliver and Company? I slid into the seat beside Jasper and I knew he was staring at me in suspicious puzzlement, probably wanting to know why I was acting so strange or wondering about what Bella meant but I zoned in on Rosalie instead. "Rosalie, please stop glaring the humans are starting to notice." I told her. She turned her glare to me and my eyebrow rose. She stopped automatically and tensely gave me a smile.

"Now, that wasn't so hard. If you excuse me." I turned to Jasper and took him by surprise when I brought him down by the lapels of his jacket so I was kissing him full on the lips, passionately. I heard the gagging noises that both Emmett and Alice were making but I didn't mind because I was both hiding_ that_ feeling and enjoying the one's that Jasper's arms around my hips created and the way his lips moved with mine created both sensations. It was Jasper that pulled back this time and I smiled at him. His deliciously panty dropping smile and dark eyes nearly made me tell him that if he didn't take me now I'd throw myself under a bus.

"There, that makes up for it." I said, smoothing out his jacket and straightening in my seat to smile at the Cullen's like I hadn't just attacked their brother. Emmett and Alice were giggling, and I do mean that Emmett was giggling but Rosalie was back to glaring at Bella. Really? Could she not handle it? That thought was erased from my mind when Jasper's cold hand found its way under my shirt, inconspicuously resting on the small of my back. His icy hand on my warm human skin nearly made me jump in surprise. "What's wrong with you Rosalie?" I asked her, annoyed. I figure it's best not to call attention to Jasper's hand.

"He's going to invite her back to meet us tomorrow, at our place." Alice informed me for the otherwise occupied Rosalie, who Emmett was talking to right now, trying to calm her down.

"Is he stupid?" I asked her, raising my eyebrow, ignoring successfully thus far the fuzzy feeling that I was vigorously shoving into a temporary box inside me. This made all of them look at me and I know how harsh that must have sounded from Bella's own sister. "Sorry, but we are vampires, and if she gets hurt over there, I can not hold all of you back. Not that I don't trust you but if she gets bitten or something it's going to be hard on everyone." I explained. Alice nodded before staring off into space in a vision.

"I don't see anything happening to her. Though…." She suddenly smirked and looked at me. "Your sister is right. You will tell him soon." She said, grinning at me. I scowled.

"What, is everyone going to team up on me?" I asked her, looking to Rosalie. "What are you next?" but she didn't even look away from glaring at Bella. I took a page out of her book and glared at Alice who only smirked and started a conversation with Emmett, who looked a little put out that Rosalie wasn't listening to him. I turned to Jasper to see him confused and scowling.

"What are they talking about, exactly?" Jasper asked me. I sighed and curled myself into his chest to snuggle before the bell would ring and I would have to go back to class.

"It's nothing, honestly. Alice and Bella just….like to annoy the hell out of me." I told Jasper, glaring Alice's way but she just smirked and kept talking to Emmett. I huffed and wrapped my arms around Jasper tightly. He hesitated before giving in.

We both knew that I was lying when I said it was nothing but I still wanted to make it romantic when I told him that I loved him. I mean, Bella already told Edward but that on top of finding out that her obsession and sister are both vampires she probably didn't have time to worry about the fact that they loved each other.

But I wanted Jasper and I to have a moment where it was just us and then I could tell him that I do love him. Oh, opps. I sucked that emotion right back into that little temporary box inside of me for the moment. I hope Jasper didn't feel that.

"So, if Bella is coming to the Cullen house then everyone's going to be grouped up in the house, aren't they?" I tried to make conversation.

"Yes." Jasper muttered and I felt his lips skate delicately, temptingly, on my pulse point that did for all intents and purposes have a beat. I smiled absentmindedly as I toyed with the idea of just full on taking him and all of his delicious Southern Soldier ways right here and right now. It probably wouldn't be a good idea because then everyone would see parts of Jasper that I wanted to keep all to myself.

"You're feeling possessive." Jasper stated, pulling back from my neck to look me in the eye. Did I ever tell you my eyes are green, strikingly green? It was my best feature. I took the moment to my advantage and I sunk one of my hands into his golden halo of hair. It was kind of the same color of hay which is an accurate description if you think about it because after all he is from the South.

"Just thinking about what would happen if…" I smirked lightly. His face was adorably serious and it didn't escape my notice that he did seem to be worrying over what I wasn't telling him. Alice probably saw what would happen but she could have held that comment back. "I just decided to give all of the humans in this room a heart attack. I don't think I can though. They all ready had a heart attack the first day." I joked, tracing a, to human eyes, faint scar on his hand. He clinched it and pulled it back. It was my turn to frown questioningly at the man who held all of my heart.

He just smiled, though I noticed it didn't reach his eyes. I opened my mouth to ask him what was wrong but closed it. I didn't have a right to ask him what was wrong when I wasn't telling him the truth myself. As soon as I told him that I loved him I was going to ask though, make no mistake about that fact.

So instead of asking I smiled at him, trying to brighten up the mood. My mind searched through all of the questions that I want to ask Jasper. I wasn't in a hurry to ask him these questions. After all I had a long eternity to learn everything about him. Of course I really wanted to know now. I'm an impatient person, so sue me. I've been waiting for Jasper all of my life I think I deserve some kind of forgiveness for that.

It was probably best that I hadn't asked him because the bell had rung for school to carry on. Jasper walked me to class and sat next to me but the comment from Alice and Bella both seemed to be bothering him because he stared at me the entire time. I glanced at him as well, but out of nervousness. Then the bell rang and I had to keep myself from jumping. This only made him frown and I nearly groaned.

"When will you be at the house?" Jasper asked softly as we walked together to my next class. I felt my eyebrow rise.

"I wasn't sure you guys would want me there." I admitted after a moment. "After all, it's Bella's turn to 'meet' the family." I told him. We stopped outside of my next class and I smiled when he gave me an innocent kiss on my lips even though he was perturbed by what I wasn't telling him. I wonder if this would make all the difference when I did tell him.

"I was hoping that you could come over early, so that you could tell me this…thing that everyone seems to know but me." Jasper whispered to me. I vaguely noticed that even though I was standing outside the door, I might be late for class anyways. I pursed my lips a moment before smiling at him, I guess they were right, and I wasn't going to get away with not telling him any longer. Hell, I'd just figured out that I was in love with him this morning. It's like I can't keep secrets around the Cullen's, no matter how I try.

"All right, all right. I tried, I really did." I muttered, giving in. "I'll come over a few minutes early so I can tell you, but I really wanted it to be special." I told him, before lifting up on my tip toes so I could get a proper kiss. Then I swept away and into my classroom.

Later at the Swan house Dad was still at work, and Bella and I were just enjoying the time with Edward. In all truth, Bella was trying to wash some of the rust off of her car while I waxed my car. I couldn't let even a scratch show on this beauty. I'm rather beginning to think that it's my baby. I'm sure Mekenaten would have loved it. Of course, she always loved technology, even if back then technology was really only small things like pencils. And pencils were just chalk or lead tied to a long stick that you used on a slate of stone.

I scrubbed the wax into my car deeper. I shouldn't think about my family so little but at least I can remember them; I hate to think of the Cullen's. Could any of them remember their lives? There isn't much I remember of my life before, not many good moments anyways. I remember the husband who raped me and the son who betrayed me. I remember watching my husband plunge that knife into my daughter's chest.

I shuttered and threw the rag with the wax on it back into a bucket of water before going to get a hose. I tried to think of something less depressing, like Jasper's hair, or his eyes, or his accent, pretty much Jasper. Something good was finally happening for me. After all of these years I don't have to hide from a human in a cave. Now I've got a nice family and a boyfriend.

I smiled to myself and turned the hose off from where I'd sprayed my baby down. Yes it was perfect now, well until I drove it again that was. I sighed and threw the hose away. Now it's time to go get ready for Jasper but I was stopped just as I began to open the door. Edward had gotten in his Volvo and was driving off, but that wasn't what interested me. Edward and someone had an intense stare down as a brown and beige striped Chevrolet truck pulled into our drive. I closed the door and trotted to Bella's side as a young tan, very gorgeous Indian got out of the truck and helped, what I believe, to be his father out of the truck.

It took me a second to realize but when I did every muscle in my body cramped up. This man and strangely the younger one had wisps of that nasty, god awful wolf smell on them. The teenager, probably younger than Bella, had more of the scent about him but the crippled man had this different tint, and I just couldn't explain it.

Bella felt me tense and in turn she glanced between me and the Indians. My eyes met the brown ones of the adult but he wasn't even tensed. Could he not smell me? Could wolfs smell me when I'm human? I'd only been human once, and that had been to show the wolfs, at the time, that I was harmless. I sucked in a breath and tried to breathe straight as the younger one pushed the father closer. I smiled, and there was no doubt in my mind that it came out fake and maybe even a bit hysterical.

"Hey Bella," The boy greeted, glancing at me. How did Bella know this boy? Had I been too lax? Should I have told her about the wolves down in La Push? She had a right to know but I'm not sure I had the right to tell her anymore. I pushed out the breath I'd stubbornly been holding as Bella introduced us.

"Hey, Jacob, Billy, this is my sister Isabelle Swan, just Belle." She motioned between us as she introduced us. "Belle, this is Jacob and Billy Black from La Push. Dad bought my truck from them." She told me. I stuck out my hand and Billy grasped it in a shake. I had to fight off the urge to wrinkle my nose from the scent coming from him. I couldn't explain the disgusting smell more than wet dog rolled in pig guts.

I shuttered and smiled at them anyways. "It's great to meet you guys." Now that I thought about it I could remember Dad going out and saying he was going to Billy's or saying he was going fishing with Billy. This Billy didn't seem to understand that I was a vampire so I either don't stink in this form or he's a good actor and he remembers the pact that his people and I have. Forks is neutral grounds, I can be here without breaking any rules but I don't think that they'd take kindly to me being so close to my family.

"Have you guys come to visit your truck?" Bella asked. Oh, oh more news. I blinked and glanced at the truck before I forcefully calmed myself down. I didn't need to panic. I was doing nothing wrong right now and I was within my rights to be here and I had more battle experience, at least enough to get me out if these two were to turn right now. Something though, something that was far down and tied to my vampire side, said they couldn't, at least not yet.

I hadn't noticed until now, when I was slightly less panicked then before, that the young man carried a beat up looking brown paper bag. He dropped it into his father's lap as he answered Bella, his cheeks a rosy red over the tan of his skin. "Looks good. You got that dent out." He noted. I looked back at the truck and realized that she had in fact gotten the dent out. I'd completely forgotten about the dent in Bella's car from where Tyler's van had hit the bulge of her wheel guard and put a medium sized dent in it. I don't think you could really tell it was there, mostly because the entire truck was pretty much nasty.

"Yeah." Bella, ever the conversationalist answered I rolled my eyes at her in feigned exasperation. She elbowed me and I grinned at her while rubbing the ache out of my stomach. Bella and her sharp elbows are going to be the death of me.

"Actually, we came to visit your flat-screen." Billy replied. I giggled and leaned on Bella's monster truck as Dad pulled into the driveway as well. He jumped out of the truck and walked over just as Billy said, "First Mariners game of the season." I was lost because I don't really like baseball or basketball really. I liked to play it sometimes but I don't watch it on T.V. unless I have to. It was just by convenient surprise that I'd seen any of Phil's games. I smiled though, because smiling when everything is wrong helps. Or that's what I've learnt through the years.

"Plus," Billy said as he glanced back at Jacob. "Jacob here keeps bugging me about seeing you again." The boy in questions tan cheeks turned rosy as he was ousted. I felt kind of bad for him, I mean Bella was completely in love with Edward and he was just now meeting her for what I think is the second time. The longer this conversation went on without me being suddenly ripped in half the more relaxed I became.

"Great, thanks Dad." Jacob muttered, suddenly incapable of looking Bella and I in the eyes. I rolled my own and grinned at Dad as he shuffled onto the scene.

"Just keeping it real." Billy half threw his hand mocking a gangster. I snorted and had to cover my laughter up with my hand and Charlie had a half smirk on his face. I had to admit that seeing the woes of a teenager, being how old I am, made me feel amused to but I wouldn't have wanted Charlie to have done that with me and Jasper. Though, I'm sure if Jasper were here, or Edward had stayed any longer, there would've been some more problems than I have now.

I may have an advantage against the wolves, them seemingly not knowing I was a vampire, but Edward would have been a lost cause. He might still be a lost cause seeing as the Indians had seen him to. Maybe they didn't know, and were just innocent bystanders. That theory didn't make sense either though, because they still had a lingering smell of wolf on them.

I put my head back into the conversation when Charlie held up a six pack of beer. "Vitamin R." He said and I wrinkled my nose in disgust. Beer tasted nasty, as did most alcohol, except rum. Rum was good. Not that I've drunk it in _this _lifetime but you know I get low sometimes and it lets me forget my troubles for a while. Isn't that everyone's excuse to drink?

"Way to go Chief." Billy said, grinning back at Charlie who stood beside if not a little bit behind him. Billy held up the brown bags for Charlie to see. "Harry Clearwater's homemade fish fry." He announced and my mouth twitched. I bet that Bella was going to be the one cooking that, as Dad would burn the house down boiling water. Dad tilted his head.

"Good man." He said, sitting the six pack of beer down into Billy's lap and began to push him via the handles on his wheel chair. I sighed and walked behind them with Bella. It seemed that I was in the clear, as neither the crippled man or his son had figured out what I was.

"Any luck with the Waylon case?" Billy asked and I blinked before turning to Bella.

"What case?" I whispered to her.

"Dad's friend, that he's known for thirty years was killed. They think it's some kind of animal but..." She slowed down to whisper quietly to me. "It's a vampire that did it, the Cullen's are sure of it. They think that the vampire killed the security guard at the mill to." She informed me. My mind raced with reasons. Obviously they were human drinkers but I was sad that I didn't know. Waylon had been a good, if not a little weird, man that had been friends with Dad for a long time. He was nice every time that I'd met him and when I was playing twelve he'd let me have a load of candy behind Dad's back.

I didn't say anything to Bella, instead listening closely to Billy and Charlie talk. Jacob kind of followed behind them but I could see he really wanted to talk with Bella. I felt so bad for the guy. He had a major crush on my sister that much was obvious. I wouldn't let him near her though, not with her being human and him some kind of shape shifter. Or was he? I groaned softly as my head began to ache.

"Well, I don't think that it was an animal that killed him." Charlie announced as Dad helped roll Billy along the sidewalk. I watched closely.

"Never thought it was." Billy answered and my lips pursed. This could become a problem, after all the 'official' word was that Carlisle and his coven were the 'owners' of this territory. It was all about permanency. The Denali's, for instance, were the owners of the Alaskan country. Vampires can come onto our land at any time but it was legally okay for us to kill them if they did not ask, especially if they knew this land was ours. Some vampires think it's important. I think it is only polite, and had I been a human drinker I would have asked the Cullen's first.

What matters though is some human drinker is going around killing humans here. Humans that I know. Humans that I loved. I glanced at Bella. Would I have to protect her? I didn't want to fight some one. I don't like to fight any more. Something...happens to me when my adrenaline rises and I fight. It isn't a pretty sight. I haven't fought someone in years.

But looking at my cozy little family I might make an exception for them. My life, if I looked at it from a different perspective, has changed starting with my decision to join the Swans. I used to not have to worry about other people. I never had to care about others, or what they thought because it was only ever my life on the line.

"Spread the word out on the rez, won't you? Keep the kids out of the woods?" Charlie asked of Billy as he turned him around, trying to get him up the steps to our house. I watched as his eyes locked with Bella's.

"Will do. Wouldn't want anyone else getting hurt would we?" Billy said and I watched as Bella's conscience began to play. I know what she thought of. She thought of all of the lives that were being taken, all the people who were constantly loosing their lives to vampires, people in a world she was going to be submerged in for a long time. I do know some of what she feels. When I had finally realized what was _really _happening, when I'd stumbled out of that water with only one thing on my mind...I can't explain the want for death that I'd felt then.

I was slow and silent as I followed the group into the house. Everything seemed kind of out there, like I wasn't there. All I could see really was Bella there. She was thinking about it, even when Jacob tried to get her attention. Bella glanced at me and caught my eyes. I was solemn, just waiting on her to turn tail and run away from me. Would I really be able to take that?

She didn't though. Bella was ever the enigma. She smiled brightly, happily at me. How could she love me still when I was such a monster? I sighed and excused myself, claiming exhaustion and homework. Billy and Charlie waved me off, oblivious to my sudden depression. It hit like lightening and it was almost crippling.

As I softly closed my door behind me my entire world seemed to shutter. I had felt this way before, whenever I took the time to stop. Whenever I took the time to remember how many lives I'd ended, how much I'd taken, and how many people had hurt because of me...I couldn't hold back the tears. All of those peoples lives taken because of me.

My sobs weren't audible but some how, some way my beautiful savior found me. Jasper's arms came around me suddenly, and I jolted in surprise, banging my head on the door as I lifted my head to meet his golden eyes. "How-?"

"Edward called, and said that the wolves had coming knocking." Jasper muttered, pulling me in. "Did they hurt you? What's wrong?" He asked, nothing above a whisper so we would not risk the humans hearing. His questions only reminded me...

"All of those people..." I muttered out loud. The little girl who had been playing in the rain outside, having walked away from the orphanage. She'd been so pretty, her beautiful little dress and her pig tails and her ambrosia for blood. I'd tried to explain to myself that she'd been better off. That she had been sick, I had even tasted it in her blood but it hadn't helped. There might have been help for her. She had been so young and innocent of the ways of the world.

The man, who'd only been searching for a place to live, cast from his home like he'd been. The man who'd tried to give me peace when I'd told him that I was sick of my life. The way his blood felt as I stared at the hands I'd stained in it.

All of my kills came back and I cried, Jasper holding me softly there in my tiny room with so much innocence about it. It couldn't be my room. I wasn't innocent, I was the devil in disguise, and I was the monster that people told their kids about. That people believed to be fake, no harm, but really I was a danger to the entire world.

I hated feeling like this. I needed to stop, to not drown in this pity. I was who I was and I couldn't help what I had already done. There was no way back for me. I looked to Jasper, my future. He was so handsome, how could he love me but as I look I saw that he was trying to bare my emotions. I could feel them slowly dissipating but the pained look on my gorgeous mates face only made me want to take it away.

I had a future now. I had a life free of Set, the devil I mean. I had a man who was here for me, when he didn't even know what I had done. He didn't know anything about me but he cared. He had his demons; I could already see it, in the scars, in his eyes, or even in his every day posture.

Jasper was watching over me, even when I least expected it. That was enough. He had known me such a short time, and I had known him even littler. I merely wanted to collapse in his embrace and have no more problems, no more mistakes.

My feelings began to clear, bringing my mind with them as if connected by a rope. How did Jasper find me at this very time? Was it fate? Or was it just the bond of the mate?

"Are you all right?" Jasper, his voice so concerned and gruff from worry, asked of me. I silently nodded as he noiselessly swept me up carefully into his strong arms. I didn't want to say anything. It was just like my eyes were being opened from a haze. Nothing had been serious; it had all been kind of all about Bella, and not about us. Jasper was here, real and I couldn't believe what took over my mind.

This was serious. I was in love with this man that I didn't know much about. Jasper's past was a mystery and I wanted to solve it. I would have as long as he gave me, but I'm hoping it would be forever.

My mate sat me down, cautiously on the bed unaware of my reawakening. To think, that only the words of a crippled human could bring me to my knees and change my life again. I was unsure where to go from here.

"I love you." I whispered, the words falling from my red lips without hesitation. Jasper's eyes flicked up to my eyes and widened but I smiled and tilted my head up to kiss his soft pink lips. I was in love; that was the only thing I was absolutely sure of. I couldn't let this man go, ever.

**Okay, I think I scared you guys a little. I'm so happy that everyone responded to my question but I don't think I explained this very well. I WILL be continuing through all four books with the JasperBelle relationship no matter what. What I'm trying to say is that this story would be the background and about New moon or Breaking Dawn (I haven't decided as new moon would be cliché and Breaking Dawn to late) I would write a different story where I would tell the readers to use this as a reference to what she went through. This one will _not _turn into a GarrettBelle.**

**I would never do that to you guys because I hate that to. I once read a JasperOC or that's what it was supposed to be. It ended up being a JacobOC and I was _pissed _because she even killed Jasper.**

**Sigh. So. I hope you guys forgive me. In exchange for almost killing you guys I put this chapter up earlier then I had planned to. This is the first one I've written in a while. Not all of it is written, some of it is still prewritten. I thought that Belle needed to become a more serious character, but this is just my view on what I think a vampires life is like.**

**Don't kill me if the next chapter takes a little longer to get out. I thought I've been doing good, getting these chapters out so close together after so long without updating. The I might forget to put it up, but I wrote the next chapter yesterday and I'm working on the next one. **

**I hope you guys forgive me!**


	13. The Family

Bella and Charlie ended up going out to eat at the diner when Jacob and his dad left. I had told them through the door that I wasn't feeling well. Bella probably knew I was with Jasper.

Jasper and I didn't need to speak. We only held each other through the rest of the evening, cherishing in each others presence. I don't know what he felt, or what he thought but my thoughts were some kind of an orderly chaos. For vampires, it wasn't rare for us to make split changes in our moods, personalities, or anything at all. We were nomadic creatures at change and most of us old. How else would we change if it was not sudden, and without warning? We could never really stay with one decision and it shows if you stay near vampires for long enough.

Years have gone by without me seeing others of my kind but when I do see them, and spend time with them it always comes with one of these changes. I have traveled with others before but I've never actually committed to staying with someone, for a serious relationship. Not only romantic relationships. I have so few friends or comrades that I could really think of as friends. This mating was a big deal. I was finally in love.

I thought it would never happen, never really come to pass. How could I know that I would get this beautiful man for a mate? When I was told of mates, when I met the first other vampire then myself who wasn't my maker I'd fallen in love with just the idea. Maybe that was what had made me act so unserious about this relationship, or was it the years of waiting, of searching, of finding no one. I don't know but I didn't need to worry now. I have found someone who loves me, for just me, without even a past.

"Will you tell me about your life?" I asked softly of Jasper. We laid on my soft, and small bed, me lying beside him, curled to match every length of his body as I could. He was turned to watch me as well, our foreheads touching. Jasper was a tall man, and very understanding. He had not panicked over me, or commenting really on my break down. He held me until I told him about the little girl, and the man, he didn't judge me, or condemn me for taking so many lives. He listened and comforted me, like I want to do with him one day. I want to prove my love to him. To tell him how my heart felt ready to burst when his golden eyes met my golden and green sparked ones. How could I ever explain to him this intense feeling that had taken over me so suddenly?

I'd just have to spend our eternity showing him how much I loved him.

"I was born in Houston, Texas." Jasper whispered. I didn't mind how late it was. Billy and Jacob had left, Charlie was in bed and Edward was curled along Bella as she slept. It didn't matter that I knew he could hear us. After all I'd heard his moment with Bella, when he told her that he watched her sleep. Now it was our moment, and Edward was a reasonable vampire, leaving us to have it.

"Yes." I encouraged softly, resting my hand over where it had lain over his non-beating heart that he'd told me was only mine.

"In 1843 I was born, to my parents. I can't remember their names but I had one sister, named Emily." Jasper told me and I saw his eyes glaze over and he looked a little to my left. Intently I listened, feeling his cool ice cream breath on my warm human skin. "They were still alive when I was changed. When I turned seventeen I joined the confederate army." He whispered softly.

"They let you join?" I asked him, my eyebrows rising. Jasper's lips formed delicately into a soft smirk.

"Not exactly." He answered, and I smiled at him. His hand squeezed me lightly where it gripped my hip, casually keeping me pressed against his cool vampire skin. "I was tall enough then that when I told the recruiters that I was twenty, they believed me." I chuckled softly, swiping a piece of hair away from Jasper's beautiful eyes. He had changed clothes since I had seen him last, now wearing a black shirt and black jeans, an incredible combination. Vampires have always looked good in black, especially with our eyes being naturally unnatural as they were.

"I don't remember much before, or a little after that. I remember at maybe 12 I took ill with the yellow fever, but I survived. My best friend did not. I can't remember his name. I was the youngest major in the army, when the battle of Galveston happened." Jasper told me looking down at my shirt where his hand rested on my hip. I stayed silent as it became harder to talk for him. It must be when his change happened.

"I was ordered to secure all of the citizens, and to evacuate as many as would leave. When I made sure that there was nothing left that I could do, all the citizens were evacuated and the ones that wouldn't were safe, I left the city for the base at Galveston. I saw that off to the side of the road there were three women, beautiful women, standing in the rocks of a small river. They didn't seem to have horses so I went to offer my assistance to them." Jasper's other hand tightened in my shirt, where his arm was curled under me, also keeping me close to him.

"Jasper." I whispered, smoothing my hand over his cheek in comfort, or to keep him in the present I wasn't sure but I touched his head with my own as I closed my eyes, picturing what he was telling me.

"They were so innocent looking." Jasper laughed, but it was choked and I opened my eyes to see the tears in his eyes that would never be shed. I squeezed his shoulder and kissed his temple. "I couldn't have been prepared for what happened. They introduced themselves, Maria, Nettie, and Lucy. Maria was the one to change me. She brought me into a world I never wanted to be a part of." Jasper swallowed and the tears were in his eyes still as he kept speaking. I could see them shining in the moonlight of the night and I watched him, fascinated in this gorgeous man who had been in such pain.

"I was her second-in-command in the Southern vampire wars." Jasper told me and then looked to me. "Do you know about them?" Jasper asked. I was silent for a minute as I looked into his eyes.

"Yes." I finally answered. The memories were there, of vampires reporting to me to tell me of the violence, of the horrible sight of field burning with the deaths of many vampires. All of it for territory. "I was with the Volturi at the time it happened." I told him softly.

"They were horrible." He told me. "Maria...she made me believe that we were in love. I did everything she told me. I was mostly in charge of training the newborns and like a sheep I did what the wolf told me, I slaughtered any newborns in the army that had outlived their usefulness. When I befriended Peter it was a saving decision. He left the army, the only one to manage it. I was so _sick _of that lifestyle." Jasper stressed the word and I held him close, moving my arms around him and tightly griping him. The beautiful vampire returned the favor.

"When he returned for me, with his mate Charlotte I left without looking back." Jasper told me, my head tucked under his chin and his head resting on my own. "Then I met Alice. She told me that there was a life I could live that I wouldn't even have to take a human's life. She taught me to be vegetarian. We traveled together a long time, to try and find Carlisle and his family." Jasper laughed. "The little pixie wouldn't rest until we found them. She kept saying that it was the only way we would find who we were meant for." I grinned.

"She saw me coming then." I laughed and Jasper watched me. "I guess I should have seen _that_ coming. Alice is a great woman, and an even better friend." Jasper chuckled in agreement with me.

"I've been waiting on you for a long time." I told Jasper softly, tracing the scar on his jaw. Jasper's lips turned into a smile again and he grinned at me.

"I'm sorry ma'am." I chuckled and kissed him again, softly, tenderly. I knew he could feel my emotions bubbling beneath the surface but I was so emotional right now that I don't know how he could stand to be near me. He could though, this amazing man was mine. I couldn't fathom what decision that had been made so that I could have him but I thanked God that he chose to give this man to a monster like me.

Jasper watched me sleep that night. I didn't scowl at him, like I had told him I would if he started acting like Edward. I did tease him about it in the morning but I followed it by a kiss that could have been more beautiful than the stars.

Edward and Bella greeted us when I snuck Jasper into her room. Charlie was awake already downstairs but that was all right. Jasper was easy to sneak around and Bdella was already dressed.

"Are you ready for Edward to meet Dad?" I asked Bella. She groaned and Edward smirked at her. He was completely calm, but Bella was nervous. I turned to Edward and Jasper. "Why don't you two go ahead and get the Volvo?" I asked them. Edward looked at Jasper.

Edward bid goodbye to Bella before jumping out of her window. Jasper winked playfully at me before following. I smiled before turning to comfort Bella, like the sister I was.

"Bella," I said, sitting beside her on the small bed. "Everything is going to be fine. You'll charm them with your rapier wit, and they'll be unable to hate you." I paused for a second more. "Well, Rosalie will probably always not like you but that's only because she feels that you threaten her family." I explained. I wasn't doing a very good job in comforting her but I wanted to be honest with her and Rosalie would probably never forgive her for what Rose sees as a mistake of Bella and Edward's.

"Thanks a lot Belle that really made me feel great." Bella said sarcastically. I watched as she got up to pace more. Silently I looked her over. Bella really was a gorgeous girl, if she could only see that she had nothing to worry about.

"Charlie only wants you to be happy. As a Dad, he just doesn't want to loose us to other people, especially boys. He's afraid we'll get hurt, or something will happen to us and he won't be there to fix it." I explained to her, leaning my weight on my knees as she stopped to look at me. "He'd never begrudge you something that makes you happy, even though he may fight you all the way to getting it." I stood, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Let's go downstairs, the boys will be here now." I told her softly. She followed me down the stairs and I grinned at Dad who was grumbling over his gun. I left Bella to explain to him what was going to happen, that Edward was here and that he and Jasper were taking us out to play ball. Charlie didn't need to know that it was only going to take us a short while to really play ball. The rest of the time was for Bella to meet the rest of the family. I would go along with them, so as to enjoy the moment.

Charlie already knew I was leaving so I got into my car and headed there, as Alice's directions told me the way. They were just as vague as the last time, when she told me to go to the baseball field. I followed them though, and I almost missed the turn off. It was overgrown with trees, and they only way I could tell that it was the right driveway was when I made it past the line of overgrown trees to break out into a perfectly manicured road.

It made me chuckle to think of Esme making Emmett or Jasper work on trimming the trees and brush just to make sure even the road looked nice for visitors. It seemed so Esme to worry about what Bella thought, to make her like them. Esme seemed too maternal for her own good, as if she wanted to be the world's mother. It only made me smile to think of how much older I was to her, yet she still wanted to be my mother. It made me happy to know that there were still people like her alive...or well dead really.

When I stopped my car outside Esme poked her head out and smiled happily at me. I laughed and turned, speeding to the door to greet her with a hug. She returned it, squeezing me a bit.

"Hello Esme." I greeted as she tugged me into the house. Jasper stood there, leaning against the door. When I was fully in the house he started walking beside me, ever the silent man and together we followed Esme to the kitchen.

"-took us a little longer because the table had to be made from fresh driftwood but I hope you like it." Esme concluded. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I hadn't been paying attention to her so I smiled and nodded.

"I'm sure that I'll love it, Esme." I answered but my eyebrows raised at the picture the Cullen family made in the kitchen. Carlisle was cooking chicken, Esme was making some kind of pasta and Rosalie was glaring at pieces of a salad like they were going to combust if she only willed them to.

"We don't have any one to taste it, so we are glad to see you." Carlisle greeted, holding up a piece of the chicken and smiling serenely. I turned human again for a moment to taste it and as I swallowed it I thought that Esme might actually combust instead of the salad.

"It's lovely, I'm sure Bella will be impressed." I didn't bother to tell them that this was all too much for one human to eat. I would feel horrible if I ruined their big day. As I'm sure they don't have new additions to the family very often.

"Thank you." Carlisle smiled and Esme flitted around the room, trying her hardest to oversee the entire counter of food.

"Do you think we have enough though? How much does a human eat?" Esme worried. "I could make some more. The man at the cash register said that he eats this much, it is enough right?" Esme looked at me. I chuckled and lightly touched Esme's arm.

"Esme, if you want me to be truthful, humans don't eat this much, but Bella will eat what she can." I told her, and glanced at the spaghetti. "I'm not a very good cook, but I think the spaghetti is done." I pointed to the boiling pot. Esme flitted over again. I turned around though, changing when I did to see Jasper smiling at me.

I smiled back gripping his hand lightly. They were all working, with Esme now working on the grating the cheese. I tucked my head under Jasper's as I watched them. Then Rosalie snorted. She was holding the bowl out for Emmett to put the tomatoes that he was chopping.

"Is she even Italian?" Rosalie harshly asked. I didn't mind...a lot. I knew it must be hard for her, considering I would be the same way, should a vampire try to hurt my human family.

"Her name is Bella." Emmett defended her while Esme sent Rosalie one of those 'behave' glances. I could see on the floor the boxes that the kitchen utensils had come in. So they were getting all of it out for Bella. I'd known the food was unused but I had not thought about the utensils. How strange. Bella would be honored though. The silly girl that she is she probably wouldn't even have wanted them to do this, because she's not 'worth' it. Silly human.

"I'm sure she'll love it, no matter what." Carlisle calmed them down, like a father would his children. Well, I guess they are his children, aren't they?

"Thank you guys for doing this for her." I thanked them but they all waved it off, and Jasper squeezed my shoulder. Alice, I could hear her outside tucked her head in.

"Their here." She announced. Jasper wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me to follow him out the large open window, to stand on a branch with him and Alice. We watched, together as the two got out of the Volvo, Edward using vampire speed to open Bella's door.

"Is that a Cullen thing?" I teased Jasper. He chuckled, bending down to kiss me. I smiled as Alice giggled lightly at us.

"No, it's a gentlemen thing." Jasper disagreed. I watched Edward guide my sister into the house. Alice climbed around us to go inside and I watched her go before looking to Jasper. He was already looking at me with his sparkling golden eyes.

"Belle?" He asked. I smiled at him to continue. "What if your sister...doesn't like me? Or is afraid of me?" He asked. I snorted and ran my hand through his hair, smoothing it out. He looked just as gorgeous as he always did in a dark blue button up and black slacks.

"Bella already loves you, just because you make me happy." I told him, kissing his knuckles and he grinned at me, flashing away and then returning, holding small flowers in thank you. I laughed and took them from him, curtsying on the thin tree branch. I gave him a chaste kiss and started tugging him down through the window. I released Jasper's hand so that I could hug Bella. She trembled a little in my arms, still nervous I suppose.

I backed up, to stand in front of Jasper. "Bella, this is Jasper." I introduced them, officially. The ever anxious Jasper stayed standing there, gulping. I touched his arm lightly.

"It's...a pleasure to meet you." Jasper said. I chuckled and kissed his cheek for trying.

"You'll have to get used to him." I told her, rolling my eyes in amusement. "He's a little nervous about meeting you." I fake whispered. Bella's tense smile turned brighter at this news, that she wasn't the only one nervous about this meeting. Jasper poked me in the side though and I moved away, pouting.

"Jasper is also, newest to the family, so you'll have to excuse him if he...stays away." Esme apologized. I leaned on Jasper, moving back to him.

"Don't worry, he won't hurt her." I told them. They looked at me, and Alice smiled a sort of pleased smile at me. I only felt the sweet emotion of gratitude that Jasper sent to me. In return I squeezed that hand that held mine. The rest of him though was tense, all the Major, and barely any Jasper.

I watched as Edward scrunched his nose in embarrassment of his family. It made me want to laugh as the vampire and Bella acted like teenagers, which supposedly they were. Well, Bella was a teenager, Edward not so much. I wonder how old Edward is. I could smell age on him, but he couldn't be a bit more than a hundred, he still had the touch of someone who was young.

"All right, I'm gonna take you on a tour of the rest of the house." Edward said, making embarrassed and exasperated faces at us as he turned. Bella waved at me, lightly as he led her away.

"Well, I'll see you soon." Alice called, her lips pouting as Edward turned away. When they were far enough away that Bella wouldn't here Esme turned to Alice, grinning.

"Cute!' She announced.

"I know!" Alice answered, clapping her hands.

I turned to Jasper, assessing him. "Are you all right?" I asked him, smoothing out the shirt. He looked away from where Bella walked out and smiled at me. "That wasn't as bad as you thought it would be, was it?" I teased him, bopping him on the nose with the flowers he gave me. He chuckled and kissed me on the lips, and I heard an ecstatic sigh somewhere in the room. I pulled away to see Esme standing there, looking at us in happiness. It made me burry my face in Jasper's shirt. This is what I get, for laughing at Bella.

"Why don't you take Belle to see her room?" Esme offered in repentance for making me feel embarrassed. Following Jasper I silently looked around me, remembering. Esme had pointed out all of the rooms in the house, but what could she have done with mine? I know she wanted to make it Egyptian but having memories of that wouldn't make me happy. As Jasper pulled me to the top of the staircase I noticed the doors on one side of the hall were open and inside my sister stood talking to Edward. I kept quiet, and followed Jasper though.

This was Edward and Bella's time. As much as I poke fun at Edward's volvo, and his masculinity, he is good for her. Edward loves her, and I think it's sweet that he's going through the criticism and taking the care he is so that he can be with Bella. He makes her happy and as long as he does, I won't really ever be angry at him.

Jasper stopped now, in front of a plain white door, like the rest of the house.

"This is it." Jasper said. His voice was so silent, like he was watching me, making sure I was happy. It made me feel loved, knowing that he wanted to make sure I was okay, even after my break down.

Jasper released my hand and took the doorknob so that he could open it. When he did a smile stretched over my cheeks. The room was beautiful with a theme of blue, white, and beige, the colors of the sky. It all looked like I really was at the sea. The bed had white covers, with a scratchy kind of pattern, like sand obviously. All of the things, the wood of the bed, the nightstand, and what I believed was the closet door. It matched wonderfully, even the whicker chair that Esme had set up with a bookcase and table beside it matched.

Walking inside the room I let myself take everything in, kicking my shoes off so I could dig them in the sand covered carpet, thick and sink-in-able. I couldn't help the pleased smile that wouldn't leave my face. I looked to the door I had seen and opened it, inside was a closet of proportions that made me believe that Alice might have taken part in the decorating of the room.

"Esme wasn't sure what you wanted. Alice helped with her visions and I supplied them with what I knew." Jasper told me. I turned from the empty closet to smile.

"Well, some day I'll have to take Alice shopping to make up for it." I said, grinning. "And Esme might like some of the old Egyptian ways of decorating." I walked to Jasper, and he closed the door, meeting me in the middle of the room. "What can I do for the Major though?" I asked and just by the pleased tingling in the room I could tell that the search for a nickname for my Jasper was over. The Major. It fit him. No one really knows much about Majors, except they give orders and people follow them. I know Jasper would make a good leader. I also knew that all the majors that I had met were always silent, and heroes.

"Be by my side is all I ask." Jasper told me, and his mouth widened into a smile and his eyelids hooded. I wrapped my arms around his waist, tangling them in the ones that were tucked into his jeans.

"You don't even have to ask for that." I told him, standing on my tiptoes so I could kiss him softly on the lips. Nothing more, only a touch of the lips but it spoke so much for us. We didn't need to hurry this relationship, but we were already so close. I could feel a forever in the distance and Jasper was in it.

"I love the room, all of it." I told Jasper when I dropped back to my feet. It was a gorgeous room, and I could stay in here forever. My mind though drifted to the bookcase. How had they known I love reading? It was most likely the future seeing pixie, but that's all right. I drifted over to the book shelf to see some books in it already.

"Bella might have helped." Jasper whispered from behind me. Had I been human my heart might have leapt into my throat from the surprise. Jasper's breath ran along the curve of my neck and I smiled at the ticklish feeling that accompanied the air. Jasper gently turned me to look at him, ever so carefully bending to kiss me again.

Still, even though we must have shared many kisses by now I could not fathom how much Jasper's kisses broke through to my very soul. They were so lovely, ice cream flavored, and warm now even. My legs of their own violation wrapped themselves around Jasper's waist and I kissed him with all of my heart. My mission – To make sure Jasper knew how much I loved him.

I chuckled when Jasper was so overwhelmed that he fell back on the bed, with me straddling atop of him. Our lips broke apart with a sensuous pop and I shivered. My eyes met Jasper's darker ones and I took in the beautiful breathless vampire beneath me. He was such a magnificent person, with his many scars and his hair, accent, face, and every part of him that drug me into him.

"I feel like you are this big black hole, and the closer I get the harder it will be for me to pull away." I whispered. "I've never trusted someone with my heart as much as I have you. We haven't even known each other long enough for this to make sense, but it does." I traced the scar just peaking out of his shirt, where a light coating of hair could be seen. They were golden of course, with brown in them, just like Jasper's hair.

"I'd never hurt you." Jasper said, reaching up and tangling his hand in my hair. "I love you to much to be able to explain it to you, and I can feel so much love from you, that sometimes I wonder if I deserve it." I opened my mouth to protest but Jasper moved his hand from my hair to my lips. I closed my mouth. "You may think I'm young, for vampires, but I never knew what it was like to love some one so much, like a mate. I've felt all of these feelings from others about their mates but it's never felt like this. Now I suppose I could guess that it's because it was never pointed towards me and I couldn't feel the intensity of it." Jasper leant up, kissing me. I chuckled.

"Well, now we have each other, and no Maria, or even time can take us away from each other." I vowed, lifting myself up to balance on Jasper's knees which were still off of the bed. "As sappy as that must seem..." I laughed and scoted off of Jasper. "Why don't we read? What do you like to read?" I asked Jasper, flashing to the bookcase again.

"I enjoy classics, poems, or autobiographies." My eyebrows lifted and I looked at him.

"Here I was thinking you were going to say History books." I teased, picking up a copy of Walden and a copy of Dragonflight for me. I sat beside Jasper, handing him the book and flipping open my book of choice.

"I find they often understate the time that they explain. Sometimes they are all wrong, or even get it messed up with things that happened in different times." Jasper explained, lying down, holding Walden above him. "Classics, from people who were in the time or autobiographies of people who have lived through it are usually more accurate and I can relate to them more." Jasper explained. I laid my head on his still chest and looked at the ceiling. "Why do you like, fantasy and sci-fi?" Jasper asked of me.

"Who told you that?" I asked lightly, glancing at him.

"Bella." Jasper said. I rolled my eyes.

"How you people managed to get these meetings past me I'll never no." I said to the ceiling before answering his question. "To me, I've already lived through all of this, and I have little desire to really live through it again. I'd rather picture this world outside of ours with its own people and its own culture – its own problems. It makes me feel as if the problems I'm facing aren't so bad, or that maybe I can reach this magnificent world, and find a place in it. For instance, maybe there is a world out there where we wouldn't be the only ones to live forever." I quieted, frowning. "Did that sound as depressing to you as it did to me?" I asked, flipping over to look at Jasper who was staring at me.

"Yes." He joked and I pouted before huffing.

"Fine." I mumbled, turning over and beginning to read my own book. Jasper's only response was to weave his arm to where his hand rested in my shirt, right over my tummy.

Live right now was….peaceful.

**Haha! What did you think? Did you catch the vow she made? Did it make you wonder about the other books? **

**Anyways, I'd like to thank all of you reviewers for giving me feedback, but I'd like to give a special shout out to bonniebeast for being so enthusiastic about my love for Garrett, and I can't name all of you who review but know it makes me type more. I hope you like where this is going. I hope you also understood that at this point they are learning about each other's background, and they are getting to know each other.**


	14. The Baseball Game

"-if I get involved there will be an unequal number of players." I finished. The field was colder then I thought it would be and I had to give my jacket to Bella who was the only human here. Emmett was desperately trying to get me to play with them, but I really didn't want to. As I had been trying to tell him, Esme didn't want to play and I wanted the Cullens to be the ones showing off to Bella so they decided to make teams not based on gender. This was for her, to show them that they could be normal to.

"You just don't want to get beaten." Emmett justified, pointing at me. I snorted.

"Please, I beat you the last time I played." I told him, not even a little intimidated by his height. Bella was only now getting out of the jeep. (I'd given her the jacket before we left for the field.)

"That was luck." Emmett growled, getting right up in my face. Jasper 'accidently' managed to bump him hard as he walked by to go talk to Alice. Emmett scowled and skulked to Rosalie like a dog with a tail between his legs. I grinned and winked at Jasper before I ran to meet Edward and Bella. My sister jumped a little, not used to my speed, or my vampire looks.

"Did you two have fun on your climb?" I teased. Bella's cheeks flushed and Edward let out a puff of laughter. I could see the pleased look in his eyes though.

"Did you and Jasper have fun in your room…alone?" Bella teased right back. I would give her this one, she was sharp my sister.

"Yes." I answered, chuckling as we reached the Cullen's. Bella had her own Cullen hat now, and Edward was wearing his vest. As we three arrived, Carlisle and Rosalie were deciding who was going to play first by using the metal bat. "You know, I almost broke Edward's face with that bat." I told Bella, smiling at the memory.

"Was that the night you stayed out really late." Bella put the pieces together. I smiled.

"Of course." I answered.

"Glad you're here." Esme said, putting her arms around Bella. "We need an umpire." I didn't know what an umpire was. I turned my eyes to Jasper and he was standing there beside me.

"An umpire is the one who decides if it's an out or if they are safe." Jasper explained. I smiled and I could see Bella was also grateful, she knew as much about baseball as I had.

"She thinks we cheat." Emmett said, and I got a flashback to my version of the baseball game. Hadn't he said that before? And a sense of déjà vu came over me again as I heard Esme's answer.

"I know you cheat." I chuckled and turned to stand beside Jasper as he inspected the spare bat. I watched as his muscles flexed when he moved them. They were lean, not too muscular but they could probably go up against Emmett and put up a fight. The veins under them were blue and stood out from the rest of his muscle and skin. When Jasper flexed again his eyes flicked to me and he grinned at me. "Sorry." I muttered, watching him.

"Don't be." He whispered, keeping the conversation between us. To show me he didn't mind he kissed me on the lips. I heard a choking sound and looked at Emmett.

"Didn't you learn the last time you did that?" I teased him. Emmett grimaced and moved away slowly, covering his man bits. I heard the tinkling laugh of Alice and the others as well.

"Okay, get in place!" Alice shouted. We couldn't start until she called it. Bella stood behind Esme, who would be catching the ball, and also making the calls that Bella couldn't see. I stood beside Bella, to make sure a ball didn't get passed Esme, or anything of that nature.

For seventy-six seconds we stood still in place, waiting on Alice to call for us to go. Edward and Emmett were in outfield, with Alice as the pitcher. Rosalie, Carlisle, and Jasper were on the batting team and I winked back at Jasper who still held the spare bat. He grinned and Emmett bumped him with his shoulder but I looked back to the game just as Alice called time.

The little pixie wasted not time in cranking back her arm and letting fly a ball. Rosalie hit it with her bat and it let out a loud crack that was timed perfectly with the crack of thunder. Bella gasped and I watched her in amusement.

"Okay, now I see why you need the thunder." She remarked in fascination. "That's got to be a homerun, right?" Bella asked as Rosalie made around another base. Edward had run into the forest behind him, to get the ball.

"Come here, Rosalie!" Carlisle cheered, and Jasper called out as well for her to run faster. I watched with the venom in my veins pumping with adrenaline. Is this what playing sports was like usually?

I laughed as Rosalie hit the base, just as Edward threw the ball back to Esme. It was Bella's call. "You're out." She said, making the signal for out. I pouted playfully. Jasper's team was one out.

As Rosalie rose she glared at Bella, challenging her. I moved a little in front of Bella, glaring meaningfully at Rosalie.

"Out!" Emmett cheered and Rosalie turned her glare on him. "Babe, come on it's just a game." He teased. Rosalie turned to go pout behind the lines until it was her turn again.

"Nice kitty." Carlisle patted her on the back as he came forward, picking up the bat that Rosalie had dropped when she started running. Now Carlisle was up to bat, and he twirled it in his arms, pointing it outwards, taking a leaf from my book. Esme giggled, and bent down, ready to catch the ball if it missed. This time Bella was a little more cautious, and stood off to the side of us. Myself, I pulled on my black skinny jeans a little, ready to dive for a ball, but I really didn't want to get my clothes dirty. My green blouse was pretty, and it flattered my golden – or if they are green at the time – eyes.

My boots though were Jasper's. When I had commented that my converse were kind of shaky when I played last time he'd brought me a pair from I'm guessing his room.

Again Alice wasted no time in throwing the ball, and Carlisle hit it out into the center of back field. I watched in approaching amusement as Edward saw the ball, and then Emmett. Neither of them did a good job in telling the other and in mid air they collided, taking each other down without either catching the ball.

I laughed hysterically, leaning back into Jasper's chest when I laughed. Carlisle had made it to second base and now Jasper's turn was up. I let him go up, and watched again in amazement as he twirled his bat, just as expertly as he had before. Carlisle took off running as soon as Jasper swung the bat, hitting the ball. I couldn't help but watch his butt as he moved. Had I been human I would have flushed. My attention was grabbed away though, just as Emmett climbed up the tree and caught the ball – an out.

I booed playfully as Jasper trotted back to me and Carlisle moved back to his spot at second place. I wrapped my arms around Jasper's arm as he did his own pouting beside me. It was Rosalie's turn this time, again. I watched as she hit the ball and it went flying, Esme's hair getting thrown in her face. Rosalie made it all the way to first base before I realized something was wrong.

Alice's face had frozen and I watched as she had a vision. When the vision ended she looked off into the distance and she yelled. "Stop." Everyone, as if on command stopped what they were doing and we looked to Alice. Something in the vision must have been very wrong. Alice looked scared, and a vampire scared, especially one who could see the future was never a good thing.

Edward turned that way as well and I took a deep breath, I could smell, just there on the wind. Vampires, multiple ones. Together we moved into a huddle just a few feet in front of the first base. I allowed Esme to take care of Bella for now.

"Alice, who are they?" I asked, my voice tense.

"I don't know. They were leaving before they heard us." Alice answered me.

"Let's go." Edward said, pulling Bella.

"It's too late." I said, looking the way the vampires were coming. "Disguise her." I ordered Edward and he nodded at my idea. I took off the Cullen cap I'd been wearing and threw it away from me. I needed to be ready for if these vampires were hostile, or if they weren't and the cap would only get in my way.

"Get your hair down." Edward told Bella and she only hesitated a moment.

"Like that'll help, I can smell her from across the field." Rosalie sneered. I turned to her.

"Now, really isn't the time, Rose." I said, accidentally calling her by her nickname. I didn't have the time, or the energy to wonder if she cared. I instead turned to Bella. "Keep your head down, don't look them in the eyes, and become invisible and silent." I told her. For a moment I thought of staying beside her. No. Edward would need to protect her now. I would fall in line with the other Cullen's unless it became clear that he couldn't take care of her.

As the vampires began to appear out of the mist Jasper and I fell in line together to protect my sister. I wondered, in one of the various tracks in my vampire mind, whether they considered it protecting their sister now as well. I wouldn't doubt it. That only made me want to protect them even more. I didn't listen to what Edward said to Bella, partly because of privacy, but also because I was focused on the new vampires.

Two were male, one female. The dark skinned one with the tied back dreadlocks, walked in the middle, wearing an orange jacket, with an unbuttoned flannel shirt under it. His jeans road low and I could tell that every thing that these three vampires wore had been taken from their victims.

Their eyes were red with the blood of their food. The woman was like a child, with red hair in tight curls and fluffed out, a small body and big red eyes. She was beautiful, like all vampires usually are. The man on the other side of the dark skinned one had long blonde hair, also tied back. He wore a grey jacket zipped up and jeans. They all wore no shoes so they mustn't even try to blend in with the humans, like some nomad human drinkers do.

As they stopped before us I assessed the situation. Everyone was tense, though the nomads not as much as we were. Together the Cullen's and I performed a line with Bella and Edward at the end, so they would be overlooked. In the vampire in the middle's hand was the baseball that Rosalie had hit rested.

He brought that hand up, speaking. "I believe this belongs to you." He said, throwing it at us, and Carlisle caught it. Something was off, very off. He didn't have the leader vibe about him. I've been around a lot of people, and not only do vampire leaders have a vibe but so do humans. This man didn't have it.

"Thank you." Carlisle answered, cautious.

"I am Laurent." He introduced himself, then nodding back to his comrades one at a time. "This is Victoria." She gave a small nod, smiling without teeth. "And this is James." This one, he seemed very off. He seemed to be cruel down to his core. I looked him up and down. Yes, he didn't even nod, only sort of tilted his head curiously.

"I'm Carlisle. This is my family." Carlisle said, nodding his head at all of us, who flanked him, protected him. I felt in this moment as if I was part of this coven, for real. I don't know why it only hit me now but it was just blaring. They were protecting my sister, and calling me their family when they could have singled me out with no harm to Bella or them or me.

"Hello." Laurent said, not quite as tense as everyone else seemed to be.

"I'm afraid your hunting activities have caused a bit of a mess for us." Carlisle commented. Laurent seemed sincerely surprised.

"Our apologizes. We did not realize that the territory had been claimed." II looked him over again. Laurent was smart and cunning, but still he wasn't the leader. Would the girl be the leader? I glanced between the others and my eyes caught the blonde ones. They were different then the others…crueler somehow. Maybe it was just the red eyes, though it had never disturbed me before. I had many human drinker friends, so why did his eyes disturb me so much?

I don't know but when his eyes and mine connected Jasper's tense form became clearly ready to strike. I didn't remove my gaze from James, merely placed a calming hand on Jasper's arm, to let him know I didn't fear James. Yes, I feared for Bella, and I was afraid this would affect her but James could not be more then fifty years old, the red one no more then seventy at most. Laurent could be almost older then Edward, but still. I was an old vampire and I was very good at killing, as a vampire does get used to it after about five hundred years. Safely I could say I was confident enough that should it come to it these vampires would be no match for me.

Jasper, feeling my confidence and calm followed my example, a little.

"Yes, well, we maintain a permanent residence nearby." Carlisle informed them. For a moment I saw genuine interest in Laurent's eyes, when I broke James' gaze. I was surprised when both Victoria and Laurent turned to look at James. So he was the real leader in this trio.

"Really? Well, we won't be a problem anymore. We were just passing through." Laurent told us and I watched him carefully for any signs that he was being insincere.

"The humans were tracking us." Victoria spoke, the first since we'd met them. She had a bubblegum kind of voice, to sweet. "But we led them east. You should be safe."

"Excellent." Carlisle responded. After a tense moment Laurent spoke again.

"So," He said. "Could you use three more players?" I glanced at Carlisle and then Jasper. We were lucky that Bella had not been noticed by now but if we stayed there was no way they would not find out about her.

"Sure. Why not?" Carlisle answered then pointed to the three of us at the end, Edward, Bella, and I. "A few of us were leaving, you could take their place. We'll bat first." Carlisle threw the ball to Laurent but Victoria reached up to catch it.

"I'm the one with the wicked curve ball." She teased.

"Oh, I think we can handle that." Jasper answered, grinning triumphantly, squeezing my hand. We made it; we could get Bella out of here now. I turned with Jasper, squeezing his hand as well before releasing it. I just reached Bella when the wind blew.

The response was instantaneous. The blonde one, who was the real leader turned, grinning hungrily at my sister. "You brought a snack." He stated, moving forward, and I did to, snarling in his face. The others were there as well, almost as fast. Edward stayed in front of Bella. I growled menacingly and Laurent, the smart one moved James back while Victoria fumed on the side.

"A human?" Laurent was astonished.

"The girl is with us." Carlisle said. "I think it's best if you leave." I looked James in the eye, daring him to make a move. I could take him down in an instant, and his mate with him. Laurent may be slightly harder, but he would be nothing to someone my age.

"I can see the game is over, we'll go now." The fake leader said, touching James' shoulder. "James." He ordered sternly. I watched, sneering at James. Do it. Make my millennium. I wanted his venom. He tried to hurt Bella. He tried to hurt family. No one makes it through that with out a very painful death. As the three nomads turned away James put his arms around Victoria, but Laurent's eyes wistfully lingered on us.

"Get Bella out of here." Carlisle ordered, looking first to Edward then to me. I nodded, flashing the jeep ahead of Edward and Bella, pulling open the door and waiting impatiently. Jasper was there beside me, and he pulled me into a quick kiss.

"Be safe." Jasper whispered and looked me in the eye.

"Please," I joked half-heartedly. "I'm a little older then you, I think I should be telling you to be safe." I said, pushing him towards his family. He gave me one last glance before running to join his family in the clearing. Edward and Bella reached the jeep and I jumped into the back seat as Edward helped Bella quickly into the front seat.

"I'm alright, I've got it!" Bella yelled, when Edward snapped all the belts of the chair on. I didn't bother. This jeep wouldn't move me. Instead I leaned forward.

"Drive." I snarled at Edward and he obeyed.

"What, now he's coming after me?" Bella desperately asked. I looked at her but I had no answers that would calm her, or answer all she wanted to really know. I wasn't the mind reader and I didn't know. I moved back into the backseat as it hit me, just as that something had hit me last night. Bella didn't need me any more. She had Edward to take care of her. I was useless.

My heart clenched and I felt tears in my eyes. I loved my sister, and I didn't want her to not want me any more. Would she throw me aside now that she had Edward? I can still protect her, in fighting even with his mindreading I would be better than him. I didn't need an ability to read my opponent. I hate fighting, when I can I avoid it, and my temper doesn't get the best of me, like it did when James tried to eat Bella, I would rather talk it out. We vampires though are a violent race, even if we don't get violent as often as you think. We like to pretend we are a civilized race.

If you spend to long together a fight is bound to happen, even mates can fight. Edward had us going fast down the driveway and almost as if my mind was somewhere else I reached forward and steadied Bella and she shot me a panicked, but grateful glance.

"Listen to me, both of you." Edward said, looking where he was driving, hastily I might add. "James is a tracker." A chill rose through my spin and involuntarily I growled, make Bella shiver as well. I'm not sure if she knew what that meant, but a tracker, was able to track people, as the name implies. I don't know if he's any good but that could be a problem if Bella's scent touched anything. "The hunt is his obsession."

Charlie. My eyes widened. He had Bella's scent all over him. My shoulders tensed. I didn't want the man I considered my biological father to get hurt, just because I drug him into the vampire world by choosing his family to stay with.

"I read his mind; Belle's reaction set him off." Edward glanced at me and I flinched. "It's now his most exciting game ever. He will never stop." It was my fault. I had acted to hastily, hadn't waited for the others to react as well. I cricked my neck. I'd make up for it. I'd do anything I could to keep these people safe….yes that sounded right, adding on the Cullen's. They'd been good to me and Bella. Plus, they'd brought to me my mate, and I could never thank them enough for that. I was gaining a lot of debts to people. I owed Edward for keeping Bella safe, and the Cullens for loving us and allowing us into their family, I even owed Charlie and to some extend Renee.

"What should we do?" Bella asked, hysterical with panic.

"We have to kill him." I told her, meeting her frightened us with calm in mine, so as to maybe give some of it to her. I felt strangely calmer then my thoughts were. I don't know if I could really claim it as calmness, because something inside me really wanted to burst right now but I wouldn't let it. I had to keep people safe. My people needed me. I shook my head, clasping my forehead in my hand. Now wasn't the time for my brain to sink into the past.

I could just see all of the times that Egypt had needed my protection…

"We have to rip him apart." Edward said. "And burn the pieces. It's the only way to kill a vampire." I flinched again. No, no it wasn't. I stayed silent though. I didn't need that secret getting out, not here. I don't want to ruin someone else's existence.

"Where are we going?" Bella asked desperately looking at the fast moving scenery around us. I wasn't the least bit worried. If I could trust anything to a vampire, driving a car was the easiest thing.

"Away from Forks." Edward said and I snapped my head to him. "We'll get a ferry to Vancouver.

"Edward that wouldn't help." I tried to tell him and he turned to me.

"What do you want me to do?" He argued. "Lead her back to her house, or ours, where her scent is fresh, and he'll look for her first?" He asked me, daring me with his eyes. I snarled at him.

"Edward Cullen, don't you dare get that attitude with me." I threatened, the venom was pumping so fast through my veins I might would have threatened Aro himself had he shown up. "We can do something. If we don't, and we just leave Charlie will get hurt. It's my fault this family is in trouble, and I'll make it better." I told him.

"It's not your fault." Bella chimed in just as Edward answered, overriding her.

"Then what do you suggest?" He snarled back at me and I met his eyes. The anger left for a moment as we both registered the protection there. Yes. Edward would be good for her, he would protect her. We both noticed in this moment that the other only had Bella's protection on their mind.

"We can lead the tracker away from her." I told him. "He is following us now, with no doubt. If for some reason he believes that Charlie is unnecessary to the chase he'll leave him alone." I came up with. "Some of us can lead the tracker away, and then corner him." I theorized. It was a good plan, and it might work. "The others can take Bella away, somewhere bright where he can't get her easily enough."

"I could argue with Edward, and then say I'm leaving, where Charlie can here." Bella offered, making my attention readjust to her. My heart was pained.

"Bella…" I whispered so she could hear. I could see the tears in her eyes. To make her feel better, or an attempt to I clasped her hand tight. "Don't worry. I wouldn't let anything harm you." I promised. "I'm too old for James to beat. I know too much." I told her, grinning and she let out a hysterical laugh.

"Of course you'd have confidence about this. You're always confident." Bella said, throwing her head against the back of the seat as I continued to keep her on the seat.

"Bella, nothing will happen to you or Charlie. When the threat is over we can go back and apologize to Charlie. He'll forgive us; he loves us to much not to." I told her, rubbing her arm lightly. It had been a long time, I noted, that I had had to control my vampire strength around a human. Now seemed to be a time where I shouldn't notice something like this, but I did. It seemed less important to learn, seeing as I could be a human at any time I wanted. My eyes widened.

"Did you bring my bag?" I asked, looking back in my seat, releasing her for a moment.

"What? No." Bella asked, confused why I had started talking about my bag of all things.

"My eyes, Charlie isn't used to them. I keep contacts in most of the time remember? I haven't let him see my gold eyes since I was three." I told her. Then I got an idea anyways. "I'll go in ahead of you guys, to use the excuse that I lost my contacts and needed to change them." I told her and Edward. For a second Edward thought it over. That's all he needed before he nodded at the idea.

"What if James follows you?" Bella asked desperately. I turned to her.

"Bella, he won't." I sternly told her, and then I opened the door with my vampire strength and jumped out, turning and running ahead of the vehicle as soon as my feet hit the ground. I didn't follow the jeep, instead making any shortcuts that I could remember. The Cullen's had probably gone to their house, in hopes of James following them but it was a vain hope from the start. I could hear him when I'd started running; he was following them behind the jeep.

He hadn't even hesitated to keep following them either.

Two minutes, that's what it took me to reach the house. It would take Edward and Bella five minutes more. I ran up to the house carefully, changing mid-stride. A little more painful then standing still but I didn't break my stride as I opened the door. Charlie looked up from his TV and I grinned at him, while his eyes locked with my golden ones and he stood up, muting the TV to come to me.

"What happened?" He asked curiously. "I haven't seen you with golden eyes since you were a little kid." I was only glad that he hadn't put two and two together and realized that some how I had the same golden eyes of the Cullen's.

"My contacts fell out while we were playing baseball, and before you ask, yes I did participate." I pointed at his disbelieving face. I didn't waste time standing there though as I headed for the stairs. "I told Jasper and his family that he could keep Bella for a little longer but I was going to head home. I was just kind of freaked out, what with our similar eye color." I noted, trying to come up with something. He wouldn't think anything of it if I noted it first. Of course, he probably wouldn't guess vampires either but Charlie could be just as observant as the rest of us.

I went up the stairs and to my room, not waiting to close the door and tug a black duffle bag out from the top of my closet .I only stopped a moment to grab my contacts. At the time I'd only bought it because it was like they always had in the movies. Now I was glad that I had something less suspicious as a suitcase. I packed what I could, a few shirts and other clothes, shoes and anything that I found sentimental. Just in case.

Then, with four of my allotted minutes left I went in to Bella's room, quietly, carrying the duffle bag and a spare for Bella's things. I didn't know what she wanted to bring other then clothes but I packed them up, and threw in anything that might keep her mind off of James, books, her cell phone charger, and even the charcoal crayons that Renee had bought her in hopes of her changing her mind and liking painting and art.

And then I heard them outside. I ran to the window and caught Edward's eyes as they made their way inside, to start their act. I nodded at him, and he nodded back. I zipped up the duffle bag, and laid them both on the bed. Edward could take one, and Bella could storm out with the other, I wrote this on the back of a piece of Bella's homework.

"Edward, I said leave me alone!" Bella called downstairs, coming in.

"Bella don't do this, please." Edward responded and I heard the screen door slam.

"It's over! Get out!" Bella shouted and I heard her footsteps coming up the stairs and Charlie's quick footsteps following his distraught daughter. If he only knew what was going on.

"Hey, Hey, Hey!" Charlie called after her. "Bella what's going on?" He asked her as Bella made her way up the stairs. Edward came in the window, as soon as Charlie and Bella could no longer see him. I nodded to the note and picked up a left over piece of work from school, acting as if I had come in for it.

"What's going on?" I asked, opening the door to Bella's room. She pushed past me and I met Charlie's confused eyes. "What's going on?" I repeated to Charlie and he shrugged his shoulders, so confused.

"I just got to get out of here. I'm leaving now." Bella said and I did my part turning to her.

"WHAT?" I asked, running after her at human speed. "Are you crazy? What happened after I left?" I followed her while Charlie was halted at Bella's door. She grabbed things to throw in her bag that she missed. I watched her pull a dirty sock out with money in it from under her mattress, and some more papers on her desk were lifted into the bag. She'd slammed the door in Charlie's face and he didn't know what was going on.

"What am I supposed to say to him?" Bella asked me and I looked at her carefully. "I can't hurt him Belle." She whispered.

"You have to, Bella." I told her softly. "I'm sorry." I told her. Edward was waiting in the truck for us, we didn't have much time. No doubt James was already hear, listening.

"Bella? Belle?" Charlie called through the door. Bella opened the bathroom door and I walked out, as if I knew what happened, with a solemn face and looked Charlie in the eye and shook my head. "Did he hurt you?" Charlie tried to guess.

"No." Bella said, unable to talk bad like that about Edward.

"Break up with you or something?" He asked next, and I watched her stuff her bathroom things into a purse. Edward must be taking her duffle bag down with him.

"No, I-I broke up with him." Bella moved out of the bathroom, and back into her room, shutting the door again and this time I stayed with Charlie. When he turned to get answers out of me I just shook my head.

"I thought you liked him?" Charlie asked, confused beyond a doubt I bet.

"Yeah, that's why I have to leave. I don't want this. I have to go home." Bella said, again going into the bathroom.

"Home?" Charlie questioned and then he realized she meant not here. "You mom's not even in Phoenix."

"She'll come home. I'll call her from the road." Bella said, and I stood in the hall anxiously waiting. I hated watching her break Charlie's heart again but it was for the best, for everyone.

"You're not gonna drive home right now." Charlie ordered. "You can sleep on it. If you still feel like that in the morning then Belle and I can drive you down there." Charlie said motioning to me and I nodded.

"No I want to drive myself, tonight." Bella said, going down the stairs with her bad in her hand. "It'll give me more time to think." She said, and I ran down the stairs behind Charlie, listening.

"Bella, think about this." I pleaded.

"I mean, if I get really tired, I'll pull into a motel. I promise." Bella said, going to the door.

"Look," Charlie's voice began to crack. "I know I'm not that fun to be around but we can change that. We can do more stuff together." Charlie pleaded, I could just see the tears in his eyes. I think a little bit of my heart broke to pieces when I saw the decision in Bella's eyes, the word's she were about to speak would most likely break Charlie.

"Like what?" Bella asked. "Like watch baseball on the flat-screen? Eat at the diner every night? Steak and cobbler? Dad, that's you and Belle's thing. That's not me." Bella said and I cringed. Bella made it to the door and I stood there, eyes wide and on the motion as Charlie desperately followed her.

"Bella, come on, I just…I just got you two back." Charlie started but my sister stopped him.

"Yeah, and, you know, if I don't get out now, then I'm just going to be stuck here like Mom." Bella gound out anthen went out the door, slamming in Charlie and I's faces. Charlie didn't move and so I moved in front of him.

"Dad, she didn't mean that." I told him strongly and his eyes, misted over with tears looked to me. Those had been the same words that Renee had said to Charlie when she left, carrying a sleeping me and an awake Bella.

"She…How can you be sure?" Charlie choked, putting his hand over his mouth.

"I know it wasn't true." I told him. "I'm going with her, and try to convince her to change her mind. She's obviously not thinking right. I turned opening the door and Charlie grabbed my arm with desperate eyes.

"Don't leave me to." He begged.

"Dad, I'd never really leave you. I'm just going to make sure that you have both of us here." I told him, moving back to peck him on the check for comfort. "I'll be back, I promise." I shouted out to him as I ran to the truck that Bella had cranked and I jumped into the passanger side, slamming the door just as Bella started driving off.

It wasn't long after that when Bella's tears finally fell.

"Bella, it's all right." I whispered, reaching and taking the hand that wasn't driving. Edward jumped onto the side of the car, nearly giving Bella and I a heart attack. I decided it would be a good idea for me to change back into a vampire so I did. Edward opened Bella's door and did something that I would probably never try. He completely took the controls from her without even slowing down the car. Now Edward was driving, Bella was in the middle and I was in the passenger's seat.

"I told him the same thing mom told him…" Bella whispered to herself and I kept hold of her hand, while Edward took the other. Together we could protect her.

"Bella sweetheart, you had to do it. He wouldn't have let you go any other way. Then we would all be in danger." I told her, smoothing her hair back from her face. We were going faster now, with Edward driving.

"You did something brave Bella." Edward comforted. "He's safe now, don't worry about him. The tracker is following us. Then there was a loud bang on the top of the truck. I looked up, Bella gasped, and Edward actually jumped.

"It's only monkey man." I told them quietly, looking out in the greenery. I couldn't see the tracker. He was good. He knew at least to stay where we could not see him. That wasn't saying much though. Bella's truck could be heard at least a mile away by vampires who weren't paying attention. Emmett jumped down from the top of the truck and into the back.

"Alice is in the car behind us." Edward said. I was so distracted by Emmett's arrival, and the emotional trauma of seeing Charlie practically stabbed through the heart that I hadn't even noticed the car that was now coming behind us. The Cullen's were too good to us, following us, making sure we were all safe.

We ended up driving past the diner, where all of our human friends were. It seemed so weird to look in on them, as if they were miles away from us but not. They had no idea the peril we were in. They were laughing and having a good time unknowing.

Safe.

**Hey! I finished writing the entire story so I'll probably post the chapters really close together now. I never have patience for waiting, especially when I'm so excited to hear what you guys think. I hope you enjoy this because I did. Does everyone understand the Garrett idea now? I hope I get to do it! I just got a new laptop the day before yesterday and I didn't mention anything the last few updates but I'm so excited. I'm still getting used to it but so far I'm satisfied with it, and I can type on it.**

**I hope you guys liked it.**


	15. The James

**Sorry if this starts abruptly. I was typing the last chapter and realized that it was covering parts of the story that were not under the title.**

It took four minutes after that for us to reach the Cullen home, with Edward's driving. As soon as we parked, I hissed, jumping out of the truck and running into the house, where I had picked up the scent of one of the nomads.

It was only Carlisle's arm in front of Laurent that saved his head from parting from his body. "Wait." Carlisle warned. Edward and Bella came in after me, trailed by Emmett and Alice I'm sure. "He came to warn us about James." Carlisle explained.

"This isn't my fight." Laurent claimed. I could see sincerity in him. I just didn't know if I should trust him. It went against my gut instinct, but that same instinct has gotten me into many skirmish's before with people it shouldn't. "I have grown tired of his games, but he's got unparalleled senses, absolutely lethal." He warned us about James.

"That must be his power that he brought over." I muttered, cracking my neck again in thought.

"I've never seen anything like him in my existence." Laurent said. "And the woman, Victoria, don't underestimate her." Laurent advised, putting emphasis on this. I looked him over. Yes. For now I'd trust him.

"Thank you." I breathed and moved forward. "If you need anything in the future, do not hesitate to ask." I informed him and he smiled and nodded.

"For now I must leave. I will go to this Denali clan and learn to feed on animals. This choice is enough." Laurent said and tilted his head to bid me adieu and I watched him go with Bella looking surprised.

"You don't understand what happened, Bella." I told her, walking beside her while e=Edward and the other Cullen's headed to where Esme had said the garage was. "I was very proud of his decision, and grateful. When a vampire is as old as me, and has as many…connections and as much wisdom, extending an open ended favor is the greatest kindness or reward they can give." I told her and she looked at me. It wasn't just a look though. I think now my sister was finally understanding that I wasn't just her sister with a cool power. Bella and I had known from the start that I was adopted, so it hadn't been that much of a shock at the time. Or had all of it been too much of a shock for her to actually realize that even her sister is a vampire.

When we reached the garage I didn't have long to stand still. Had I been merely browsing through I might have took the time to finally look at Rose's corvette but now I flashed right to stand by Jasper and he looked me in the eye for a second, assessing and everything stopped. Everything always seems to stop, or at least slow down when Jasper is with me.

It didn't stay that way for long. I didn't have anything to do, as I didn't know where anything was, or what they wanted to bring. I had already brought my wallet just in case we were split from the Cullens. I'm almost positive that James doesn't know how to track a bank account. If he did, I imagine that I could find some money. I was not against the saying, 'desperate times call for desperate measures.' Every chromosome in my body was bent on protecting, and that was something I liked to think that I was good at. Well, I was good at…taking care of the people against us. I didn't want to scare the Cullen's away though, or Bella. Most likely Bella. The Cullens had been around long enough to understand that we vampires have our secrets, and our violent side.

God do we have our violent side.

"I've fought their kind before." Jasper announced to the others, probably something they knew, I'm not sure. "They're not easy to kill." Jasper and Emmett were talking while Alice and Carlisle and really the rest of the Cullens gathered things around the room. I settled for standing next to Bella while Edward joined his family and gathered things they would need to lead James and Victoria away, or anything we would need to take Bella away.

"But not impossible." Emmett remarked. "We'll tear them apart and burn the pieces." I chuckled darkly and put my arm around Bella trying to comfort her somehow. I wondered, just vaguely if my skin was making her cold or not. If it was she didn't say anything, or tell me to move so I stayed. A few of the Cullens dropped their baseball gear and it reminded me of my own. I only had on the cap, but all the same, it might get lost if I didn't do something with it. I managed to find Bella and I's duffle bags, outside in the back of the truck, and I brought them in, using my super speed.

I stuffed inside the bag my cap and placed them on the floor at our feet.

"I don't relish the thought of killing another creature, even a sadistic one like James." Carlisle said, getting what I believed was money out of the cabinets in front of where Bella and I stood at the back end of Rose's car.

"If I killed all of my sadistic vampire friends, I wouldn't have any left." I noted, trying to make the atmosphere more friendly, for Bella's sanity and all of ours.

"What if he kills one of us first?" Alice asked. Maybe it was to make plans, or not but I don't think that the question was appropriate for Bella. But I don't think any of this should have been around Bella. What could I do though? It was my fault in the first place because I couldn't control my emotions, like a newborn.

"I'm gonna run Bella south." Edward interjected, coming to stand beside Bella. "Can you lead the tracker away from us?" I blinked and Bella's hand found mine mysteriously, while the other one found Edward's hand.

"No, Edward. James knows you would never leave Bella." Carlisle ordered, always being polite and giving an explanation. "He'll follow you."

"I'll go with Bella." Jasper said, sliding up to stand on the other side of me.

"James has already seen me leave Bella once. It won't be hard for him to think that I would leave her again." I told them. "We only need a scent, to throw them off the trail. Alice, will you come with us, just to be safe?" I asked and she chimed a yes.

"We'll keep her safe." Alice said to Edward.

"Can you keep your thoughts to yourself?" Edward asked of Alice.

"Yes." Alice bristled and pulled Bella gently, but firmly towards the black Mercedes, that must be either Esme or Carlisle's car. Since Esme was a stay at home, I'm almost positive that it was Carlisle's car. I helped her into the car and turned around.

"Esme, Rosalie, could you please put these on, so the tracker will pick up Bella's scent." Edward asked. I knew the moment he said her name that Rosalie wasn't going to like this.

"Why? What is she to me?" Rosalie asked, from where she was sitting on the counter, just waiting to get her opinion in. I decided to take charge so I walked to her.

"Rosalie?" I asked her looking straight at her and she turned to look at me. "Do you consider me part of the family? Or Edward?" I asked of her and she nodded slowly. "Then if not for Bella's sake, for ours, could you find it somewhere in you to do this one thing. I'm not asking you to fight James, but just put on a jacket," I picked up the jacket Edward had given her. "And lead him away from me and Bella. If you must only think about it being me." I told her. After a long moment where I thought she would refuse, Rosalie took the jacket.

In return I patted her on the knee, and turned to the Mercedes, getting in without a second of human time to spare. I was in the front seat, with Jasper driving, and Bella and Alice were in the back. Rosalie and Emmett were doing something in the jeep. I couldn't be bothered to look though as my concentration was on listening to what Edward was saying to Bella. I knew I shouldn't invade their privacy but…it was my sister. I think I was a little privileged to this information.

Mostly Bella was of course panicking about if anything were to happen to us. Of course she would be worrying about vampires, and not herself, a human with vampires after her. The thought was so Bella that I almost wanted to turn around and tell her how much she should be worrying about herself, but I couldn't do that to her. Instead I looked over at Jasper. He looked lovely, even focused and collected as he was. Jasper was always collected. I don't know how he managed it but he always was, or he managed to look it.

Jasper glanced at me and met my eyes. I blinked and then smiled tiredly at him and he lifted one corner of his mouth into a smile for me. Jasper started the car and drove off, only waiting a moment to allow Bella and Edward the last of their moment. I sighed and prepared for the long drive to Phoenix. I never liked the place, but Bella had. I don't know if she really enjoyed it, but I knew she liked Forks now. It was like her home, and I couldn't blame her for getting attached to it.

When we were out of Forks and a long ways away Bella quietly called her mother. "Hey, Mom. It's me again. You must have let your phone die or something. Belle and I aren't in Forks, but everything's okay and I'll explain it later." Bella said, ending the call. That was the only thing that stood out about the ride. The windows were tinted so that when sunlight came Jasper and I kept driving, sparkle free.

We were arriving at Phoenix now, going on three days. Bella hadn't slept even with all of my urging and I hadn't changed human. I knew the moment I did I would be faced with a horrible tiredness. I didn't look forward to it.

Jasper looked at me and I turned to meet his gaze. It wasn't tense in the car, because my Jasper kept a steady calming sense in the car. He was such a good man, trying to keep us calm even though I'm sure he was worrying about our family as well.

Together, at the same time our hands came together on the console between the seats and I sighed, to light for Bella's ears but I didn't care. I'm almost positive it wasn't just Jasper that could see my star-struck emotions. I was unendingly in love with Jasper. Jasper and I were acting like a couple that had been together for a long time but I could no longer say that we didn't know each other. Jasper knew a lot about my past and I knew a lot of his past. I'm not saying we know every second of everyday of our past but we knew what mattered.

I sighed as we pulled into a hotel, one with an overhang which would block Jasper, Alice, and I from the setting sun of Phoenix. We may have been going to Phoenix, but the house here wasn't an option. James would go there at once if he weren't to follow the others, like he was supposed to be.

"I'll pay." Jasper said, turning to me. I blinked and looked back at him. "It'll be better, in case he is capable of assimilation with humans." I nodded and Bella stayed quiet. Unlike me she didn't have an unnatural reserve to grasp on, she was human. Sometimes it's hard to think of what side I'm on, human or vampire. It always hits me in moments like this that I may never really know.

Alice had been so quiet until this point that it made me watch her closely. She seemed to be out of it, barely following us. Apparently she was looking into the future, to see what she could. Like it was explained to me before though, it can change. I grabbed Alice's hand, so I could make sure we didn't lose her while she was in mid vision. Bella stayed close beside me and didn't wander. She knew better. Or at least I hope she did.

Jasper must have turned on the vampire charm, or affected somebodies emotions because it wasn't long before he was back with our pass keys to the room. I wondered vaguely if the front desk would think it strange that we only wanted a two bedroom suite with four high school aged looking people. Maybe we didn't all look high school. Jasper had said he was changed at twenty, and I was changed at nineteen. Technically I still was a teenager.

The room we had was on the fifth floor, in the center of the building. To avoid the chance of getting trapped in an elevator we took the stairs with Jasper carrying three of the four bags. Otherwise I helped Bella up the stairs, with her having had zero sleep, and Alice carried the other.

"Bella, try and get some sleep." I ordered as soon as we entered the room. She only looked at me without saying words. I know she was worried. "Edward and his family are safe. They are fully grown, and okay." I told her, sitting her down in the bedroom part of the hotel. It wasn't a really big hotel, one of the smaller ones in Phoenix, and we were on the top floor, but still the rooms connected.

I let Bella try and sleep. She got completely in the covers and I didn't feel envy. As soon as I turned human again I would pass out, I know it. I've been going to long without sleep, and with the zombie like way Bella was acting I wasn't going to make it much better. If it kept up, I would be asleep for longer then I'd like.

I turned on the TV, turning it on low so that it would help Bella to think we weren't just sitting there waiting for her to fall asleep. It didn't help her at all. Within thirty minutes Bella was awake again and sitting on the table. Jasper and I made perfect statues on the couch with Alice sitting beside us. I was leaning into Jasper's chest, staring off into space trying to figure out what I needed to do now.

Then I heard Alice's gasp. It was something I really was starting not to like.

"What is it? What do you see?" Jasper asked her and the hand that was resting on top of our legs and holding Jasper's was squeezed.

"The tracker, he just changed course." Alice said, almost monotone, as if she was seeing it, and living it as well. Wondering what it was like though would get me nowhere. Jasper flashed back from where ever he went to come back with the charcoal pencils that I had packed for Bella, and a piece of paper. I dropped to the floor to watch while Bella stood over the table.

"Where will it take him Alice?" I asked.

"Mirrors." She said as Jasper put the utensils in her hands. "A room full of mirrors."

"Edward said the visions weren't always certain." Bella said.

"She sees the course people are on while they're on it." Jasper replied. He'd been around Alice longer than I had, and seen a lot more of her visions. I silently watched as the picture came into being and I couldn't place it. I was never good at this. I could barely decipher the hieroglyphics on my own tomb, but that was easier, because the pictures almost always looked alike no matter who wrote them. "If they change their minds, the vision changes."

"Okay, so the course that the tracker's on now, is going to lead him to a ballet studio?" Bella asked. Like that all three of our heads turned to Bella. I didn't know how she knew.

"You've been here? When?" I asked her, standing beside her.

"I-I took lessons as a kid one summer, while you were at Charlie's. Its two blocks west from the house. We used to walk by it to elementary school." Bella explained. "The school I went to had an arch just like that." I remembered it.

"Is it here in Phoenix?" I queried.

"Yeah." Bella answered and then her phone began to vibrate. I listened to the conversation.

"Edward, are you okay?"

"We've lost the tracker."

"The woman's still in the area. Rosalie and Esme are going back to Forks to protect your father. I'm coming to get you." I lost interest after he said that as he got extremely private with the conversation. Instead I sat down with the other two on the table and picked up the finished drawing. I rubbed my head, and rested my palms on my hands and pushed them back. I wasn't physically tired but emotionally I was. I knew the draw that other old vampires see now to staying unattached.

The romans once sat still for so long that they began to be unable to move. I hadn't realized that they were not moving but I'd warned them that they would cut themselves off. That is what leads to their downfall. The people became so dissatisfied that they revolted, and the head of the revolt was Aro and his brothers. I think though, for me as a non-ruler this would be easier for me to do. After all I stayed in the ocean for a long time. I could just stay down there, now that I knew I could drink off of the whales, or other animals there.

A cool hand rested on my knee and I moved my hands to see Jasper's searching eyes. No. I couldn't do it. I had people to protect, and people who need me still. Maybe one day when there was no one left, if that day ever did come, I could test my theory.

"I'm sorry." I murmured, rising. "We should check out. Now. If he isn't following them anymore then he'll head straight to Phoenix and from there it's only a matter of time before he finds our scent." I told them, flashing around to repack the bags while Alice helped.

"I've got it, you three go downstairs." Bella said, grabbing stuff. I dropped the things I had into the bag and glanced at the other two vampires before nodding. James couldn't be here. We'd have seen him, or we would have heard of the shining man.

"I'll get the car." Alice said, walking out the door and I nodded at Jasper.

"We'll go get checked out. And buy an airplane ticket to somewhere that Bella and I don't have ties." I announced, grasping Jasper's hand and nodding to Bella, who shakily nodded back.

Together Jasper and I descended the stairs, and made our way to the lobby. There were tons of humans here, tourists, or even just people here to get to another part of the hotel. I was so anxious to leave already, to get Bella safe but the line of humans was slow going. My feet, without my permission began to bounce until Jasper put his hand on my arm.

"Belle." He said, looking me in the eyes. "We have plenty of time to go." Jasper told me, pulling me in to him and I breathed in his calming emotions.

"You always know what to tell me." I teased, tugging him along as we were the next up now. The woman behind the dress automatically had eyes for Jasper, but I didn't bother with being any kind of emotional at her. "I'm sorry." I started, making her attention focus on me. "But we'd like to check back out. A family emergency has come up and we have to leave." I told her, handing back the keys she gave us and I flinched when she batted her eyes at Jasper.

"Okay…just let me see if I can get some cash back for you." She tried to purr and it failed. All she managed to do was make me angrier, and ready to jump over this table and just drink her dry. I shook my head but Jasper growled at the girl for taking to long. It wasn't a real vampire growl but it got the girl to hurry, and stop flirting. To calm him back down I lightly grasped his arm, meeting his eyes and nodding at him.

Then, we went back to our rooms and to my surprise it was empty. I panicked.

"Where is she? She's supposed to be here? Did she get hungry? Is he hungry? Is she dead? My sister's dead. Dear God, I knew this was coming. I should have kept splashing through that ocean." I rambled, while pacing back and forth trying to find information. Then Jasper held up her cellphone and I dived for it.

"She got a call from home, not three minutes ago." Jasper told me, gathering everything together and picking them up without any strain. I placed the phone in my pocket and began running out the door with Jasper behind me. I barely thought to slow myself down in time to not scare the humans. I tried to follow Bella's scent but so many people had put their own filthy scents in Bella's freesia smell that I couldn't tell where it was until I finally followed it back out onto the dark streets and it disappeared under the overhang. It stopped in an empty spot in a line of waiting taxis.

"Call Edward." I told Jasper. "We have to tell him." I looked around for Alice and spotted her waiting on the other curb. I clutched Jasper's hand as he called with his other. I brought him to the car and then climbed into the back.

"She escaped." Jasper said when Edward picked up the phone. "She got a call from home and left while we checked out. We think it's James." Edward was panicking over the line.

"Where did she go?" He demanded.

"Alice had a vision that they went to a ballet studio." Jasper explained and I reached forward to give Edward the address, so he could get there. He wasn't hindered by the human façade and he could get their faster than all of us. I'm sure he could. I handed the phone back to Jasper now so that I could sit back and panic some more. They didn't share any more words, and traffic was heavy, as it usually is in this kind of city.

Suddenly I couldn't take it any more and I got out of the car, to the protest of Alice and Jasper. I didn't care. I could barely stand to slow down when humans were in sight. At one moment I noticed Jasper and Alice behind me but I couldn't tell you anything about those moments. All I remember is turning the corner and hearing Bella's screams.

The next thing I knew Carlisle and Emmett were on the other side of the street and together we were inside the ballet studio. It was a horrible plce, and dark. When we rushed in thee balcony was where we were and I could see James, standing over Edward, and Edward holding him back.

There was no hesitation as I rushed James. He saw me coming and backed away from Edward, but that didn't save him. I was not a mindless newborn. Instead of jumping into him. I jumped over him, and twirled, landing with my feet on his shoulders. Before he could think of anything I spoke three words in Ancient Egyptian, and snapped his head form his neck.

"Burn with Set." As his body fell, I flipped off of him, using the pillars to land safely on the ground and run to Bella, where Alice, Edward, and Carlisle waited. I could hear Jasper and Emmett starting the fire and I realized I still held James' head. I launched it over to them and didn't bother to see if they caught it. I was focused on Bella.

The blood didn't bother me nearly as badly as it seemed to the others. I was much older than them though, even Carlisle. I would like to say, when I think about it later that I wasn't affected at all, but the fact still stands that I am a vampire, and I thirst for blood. And it had been many years since I had tasted human blood. There was no danger though. I had feed before we left and I would never drink from Bella.

"Her femoral artery's been severed. She's losing too much blood." Carlisle listed off. The man was all doctor, and I dropped to my knees beside Bella's head beside him. I didn't know much about wounds. I'd never desired to be a doctor before, and I knew barely any medical things. I never needed them. All I'd know was that I shouldn't let one near me.

"No, no," Bella screamed, "It's my hand, it's burning." She grunted. I looked and my eyes caught on the bite mark. Oh, no. My needless breath caught in my lungs and I stared straight at the bleeding mark.

"It's the venom." Edward painfully told us. I took my belt off and handed it to Carlisle when he pointed to it and made a give me motion.

"You two need to make a choice. You could let the change happen-"

"No." Carlisle was cut off by both Edward and I. Again we glanced at each other, this time in shared pain.

"It's going to happen. I've seen it." Alice interjected but I chose to ignore her for now.

"It doesn't have to be that way." Carlisle finished tying the belt around Bella's leg. "You could try and suck the venom out." Edward turned to Carlisle.

"You know I won't be able to stop." Edward said and I moved forward.

"I can." I told them. They looked to me desperately, at least Edward's was. "I can do it." I told them. I knew I could. It was the stopping that was a problem, but Bella wasn't my ambrosia, and I would be okay, as long as I didn't lose myself.

"I-I can't…" Edward looked down at Bella. "I'll do it…" Edward said. I looked at him and he looked up again at me. "Just, stop me if I go too far." He begged. I nodded, though I wouldn't admit the small bubble of relief that lodged itself in my throat. I wouldn't have to suck my sister's blood after all.

"I'm going to make it go away, Bella. I'll make it stop." Edward told her, and cautiously he bit in. I watched, carefully hand outstretched.

"Edward, that's enough. Her bloods clean." Carlisle announced. I rose to my knees when Edward didn't stop. "Edward, you're killing her. Edward." I put my hand forward, just before he pulled away, nearly flying to the other side of the room. I wasted no time and looking for instructions in Carlisle. The others had left the room, I'm guessing because the stench of blood was too much for them.

"Take her to the nearest hospital." Carlisle told me. I lifted Bella into my arms and began running, not wasting time with slowing down. My sister needed me. I ran, and ran, and ran until I stopped in front of the hospital doors, and ran humanly inside, managing to change into human before I came into sight of humans. I was lucky that I was a small girl, or the tumble I took would not have been explainable. I stumbled, mostly because Bella's weight on my human arms was great, but also because the amount of exhaustion that took over my senses made me black out for five seconds of my life. When I blinked back Bella was taken from my arms by paramedics.

Behind me now I could feel the others, Carlisle, Alice, Edward, Emmett, and Jasper. I couldn't stand for very long but I stood long enough to watch Bella be carried around the corner on a gurney before my body collapsed to the ground.

"Belle!" I heard Jasper's panicked voice and I felt weightless.

"Sleepy." I muttered, my eyes closing of their own violation.

"Belle? Hey! What's going on?" Jasper asked someone who must have been off to the side.

"The days without rest must be catching up with her." Carlisle's voice now came into the picture and I felt his cool hand on my forehead. "She doesn't have a fever, she should just need rest."

"Well, let's not disappoint the doctor." I slurred the last sentence in my mind before I tumbled into dreams of lollipops and cold ice cream.

**I can't believe it, one chapter left after this….I might upload it tonight. I probably will, I don't know. I need to get this finished so that I can work on the sequel, and I need to finish my other story. **

**I'm sad to say that I'll be finishing my Destiny: The Hunger Games story before I post the sequel. If I do anything with the sequel, it'll be to post the prologue, to keep you guys happy. I don't know how long it'll take me to finish the other story, so I'm really sorry that you guys are going to have to wait. I'm hoping all of these fast updates have satisfied you enough. **

**Would you like me to post another chapter here, when I do start the sequel? Hhhhmmm….**

**Who knows? I hope you guys liked the fight scene, I've only written…one? Before. It was in my Pirates of the Caribbean stories though.**


	16. The After

It only took a day for me to awaken again. I didn't make a fanfare of it or anything of it really. Renee had been there and she had passed it off after a bit of coddling, so that she could sit at the bedside of Bella. I had expected as much. I hadn't gotten to see Jasper, because he hadn't been able to stand the blood and the emotions. It had been different in Forks. In Forks there were usually only three people in the hospital at a time and two were checkups. Or that's what Carlisle had said.

I didn't mind because he would have been uncomfortable here. I didn't want him to feel uncomfortable just because I was worrying over my sister. I don't know what I was worrying for, seeing as how the doctors, including Carlisle who I trusted immensely now, had said she would be fine. They were taking her off of the medication now, three days after I woke up and she could wake at any moment. All in all I was dying of anticipation. As soon as I knew she was okay though I was gone. I had already fought with Renee about Bella a lot. She wanted to take Bella to Jacksonville. Harsh words had been exchanged and in the end Phil had to split us up, which I'd found almost comical.

Plus, Edward hadn't left the room either and I just knew once Renee was out of the room there was going to be a moment for them. I didn't want to be around that. I had to start letting go a little. I was too protective of her, and I didn't want to get into their relationship. If I keep on as I am I might just ruin not only their relationship, but my own.

Avoiding the want to go see Jasper was killing me. I wanted so badly to go to him, but I needed to make sure Bella was okay before I left. Edward was sleeping now anyways, so maybe if I could sneak both me and Renee out of the room at the same time everything would work fine. She hadn't met Jasper yet either, only briefly had she even met Carlisle as he was Bella's doctor. Esme and Rosalie had driven to get to us as soon as they could, not following Charlie per say, but making sure that he got here safe.

He was a mess. I'd taken him aside and assured him before Bella's 'accident' that she had changed her mind and she wanted to stay in Forks. I didn't give him specifics about what happened but I made on like Bella had felt inferior. It was the simplest excuse and I wasn't quite sure that it was a lie.

Right now I sat on one side of the bed, while Renee sat on the other side, occasionally texting Phil who had to leave to go play baseball. He'd wanted to stay, and he probably would have had Carlisle's mediating skills not been shown when Renee and I fought. Edward was pretending to sleep; he had gone the whole nine yards, nodding off while sitting up. I was holding onto one of Bella's hands and waiting.

I watched Bella's face intently but really my mind was clued in on something different. I know. I shouldn't feel sorry for what I'd done. I had taken another creature's life. Again. Yet, I couldn't feel sorry for James. He had known what he was getting in to, going against so many vampires and he'd suffered the consequences to his actions. I couldn't really claim all of the defeat. I hadn't done anything special to kill him, not really. He'd already been driven mad by the thirst, and Edward could have killed him, but it would have taken longer. That would have been time that Bella wouldn't have had.

I did feel sorry for someone though. When I ripped James' head from his body I'd destroyed the life of Victoria, his mate. I didn't want to think of the pain I had caused her. I knew that I couldn't take it back now, but I would live with it for the rest of my life, another tally on my board of kills that was growing, despite my best wishes. Would it ever stop?

"Bella?" Renee asked and my attention was snapped back to the blinking face of Bella. I stood from my chair and sat on the bed, squeezing Bella's hand as her eyes opened, and closed again, cringing at the light. I moved the tubes away from her eyes, so she could blink better. It didn't take long before Bella was conscience fully.

"Mom? Belle?" She asked, still blinking rapidly. "Where is he? Where is Edward?"

"He's right over there Bella." I answered, nodding to the 'sleeping' Edward. "He's all right, of course. You worry about yourself." I told her, smiling.

"He's asleep. He never leaves." Renee said, looking to the boy suspiciously. She had thought he was handsome, I'd seen it in her eyes when she'd first seen him.

"Dad is down at the cafeteria, getting us all some food. The doctor's said you'd be waking up soon and ready to go. He'll have some food for you to." I told her, smoothing out her hair and looking over her. She was alive, okay, and awake.

"W-What happened?" Bella looked at me now and I knew from that mere sign that she hadn't forgotten, merely wanted to know the cover up.

"Well, we got tired, and neither of us had a key to the house so we stopped at a motel. You insisted on walking on the stairs instead of taking the elevator and you tripped while I was a few stairs in front of you. You broke your leg. Don't you remember?" I asked her, putting my hand on her forehead, checking for temperature.

"What?" Bella asked.

"You lost a lot of blood. The doctor's said you might be a little fuzzy on the details. Edward and Carlisle had come down from Forks to try and help me convince you to come back to Forks. You fell down two flights of stairs and through a window." I chuckled at the last part. It was all we could do for explaining away the glass in her leg and side. She wasn't healed, nowhere near it but most of the wounds were closed, and her leg was braced or was it casted?

"Yeah, that sounds like me." Bella said, turning her head back to look at Renee and I from where she'd been looking at Edward.

"I'm so sorry Bella, I should have caught you." I told her, leaning down to kiss her forehead affectionate sister love. I wanted her to know though, I was sorry for James, and that I was sorry for all the mess I'd gotten her into. I had cleared it away though, James was gone.

"No, it's okay. I'm just glad you were there." Bella told me, squeezing the hand that now held mine back. I smiled down at my loving, selfless sister. She would have forgiven me, had it been me biting her. Then our happy union was broken by the vibrating of someone's phone. I looked, irritably at Renee.

"It's Phil." She sheepishly told Bella. "He's so worried about you."

"You're texting." Bella said, raising her eyebrows as Renee managed to key in the words with one finger. She used to have to use all of them.

"Finally, yeah." She chuckled. I looked scathingly at her. I've never tried to make it a secret that I thought very little of Renee. She wasn't a good mother, and she wasn't a good wife. What she was, is someone with a wispy personality and you couldn't trust her with anything.

"He was here to see you, but he had a big game so he went back to Florida." I told Bella, standing to grab something for Bella to drink, some water. I held it up for her and let her drink it. When she was finished, only taking a few sips for now.

"Honey, you are gonna love Jacksonville. It's sunny every day, and we've found the cutest little house, and you've got your own bathroom." Renee started telling her and I angrily stood up.

"I told you she didn't want to go." I told her.

"Bella should choose. Just because you like it in Forks doesn't mean Bella has to stay. You don't make her decisions. I thought I taught you better than this." My fists tightened but I breathed in and out deeply.

"_You _didn't teach me _anything._" I stretched out, turning to Bella. "I'm going outside Bella, I'll come back later when we sign you out." I pivoted on my heel and marched out the door. My anger died out with every step though as I made my way closer to where I wanted to be. I knew where he was. I could feel him with every breath I took.

I walked out of the hospital, and two blocks away, going through an alleyway to where the city gave way to the desert. We had gone here so many times when we were little that the residents called this alley Bella Belle alley. Now the alleyway was run down but I made my way through it to where I could see Jasper standing, in the shadows of the building, away from humans eyes.

He looked fine, gorgeous as ever. I breathed out a sigh of relief and as if he had not heard me approaching Jasper's eyes fell on me. A second of preparation did not prepare me for the strength of his arms around me but I thrilled in the cool skin, and ice cream smell of his breath, the beautiful scent that was just so Jasper.

"You're alright?" Jasper asked, I could hear him breathing into my hair and I chuckled.

"Yes, it was just a side effect of the shock and suddenness, and well just all of it was well timed. It usually isn't a problem." I told him, sighing. "I think it was just because I'd spent so long being a human that it happened. It never happened when I was a vampire before human." I cut off to giggle as he picked me up, my legs automatically wrapped around his waist. "Jasp – Umph…" I was kissed, cutting my words short. His soft lips were harder in my human form and I didn't want to change, for lack of spare contacts, but I used my heat to my advantage by running my hand in his hair, and over his skin.

"Jasper," I muttered when he released my mouth, his mouth kissing down deliciously over my neck before he pecked me on the lips once more. He braced his hands under me by taking hold of my ass and my eyes widened. "You know, I told my dad you wouldn't look at my butt." I teased, smoothing his hair out.

"I guess I have some apologizing to do." Jasper's raspy voice sent chills down my spine that made Jasper growl, and kiss me again. Everything was getting better. We were going to be okay. All of us were.

Noise, bright lights, and lots of high schoolers. I was at prom. There were gambling tables, people, and lots of people. It wasn't something I saw as fun.

"I'm just saying, it's a sad parody of what balls used to be like." I debated with Jasper.

"No, what you are saying is let's get out of here." Jasper teased me back and I pouted. Jasper and the rest of the Cullens had insisted we enjoy the prom. Esme and Carlisle had even signed up to chaperone the prom. I didn't hate the idea, but Jasper can't be in a large crowd of humans. I know he won't say anything but when he thinks I'm not looking or paying attention he'll cringe, or rub his neck. I didn't want to say anything to him, because I knew that it bothered him, how well adjusted the rest of us are. I think it was killing Jasper that he couldn't stand beside me while I was panicking, no matter how many times I'd told him it was okay and I understood.

"Would you like to dance?" I asked him, looking to a clear spot. There was a spot, out on the dance floor outside where no one was at. Most everyone had gone inside, because that was where the DJ was, and plus Forks would rain on us if we even dared to stage it outside. I would like to dance. That is how I got my first date with him.

"I thought you wanted to leave?" Jasper asked, me but trailed behind me, still holding my hand as I made our way to the dance floor with so few people on it. It was to humid out here for humans, and I was currently human now but I was fine. I just wanted to dance with my Major.

"I figure one dance won't hurt." I told him, turning around to embrace him in the waltz. Nothing fancy. I didn't want to dance fancy here, I just wanted Jasper to hold me tight to him. Jasper could feel my serenity I think because he pulled me close and together we danced to the soft music playing in the background.

I never had to say anything to Jasper, he just knew. Jasper always knew because he was my mate, and he loved me. He wasn't anything like my old husband. I think my kids would have liked him. Yes, they would have loved him better than their own father, because Jasper would talk to them. Jasper would have loved them to. I knew it, because that's just the kind of man Jasper was. It didn't hurt that I would never get the chance to have kids again, but I felt a certain kind of pain at the though that I could never supply Jasper with a child, with someone to take care of.

Jasper kissed my head.

I don't think he cares though. If we ever start wanting one I can always find a baby and we can raise a human. Then, if he or she wants to be changed Jasper and I can make our own little family, and then Carlisle and the others would have extended family.

I smiled. There were always possibilities in the future. And now we had a future to look forward to that seemed clear, and precise. I looked up at Jasper, the gorgeous man with his slicked back hair, high cheek bones and stunning eyes. Jasper was everything I wanted, inside and out. He was beautiful on the outside, and on the inside he was calm, creative, and even strong in mental, and emotional forces. I couldn't say enough about my mate. The Major was everything I needed, that seemed to sum up the best of it.

"Jasper, you know I love you, right?" I asked him, smiling at him. He chuckled and twirled me once.

"Yes," Jasper looked down at me and I was hit with a wall of foreign, toe curling love. "I love you to." Jasper bent down and laid a kiss upon my lips.

**EXTRA SCENE**

Outside of the Cullen house, right after Bella had been brought back. I was nervous. They were all here, I had told them all that I wanted to speak with them without Bella here because I wanted to do something for them.

"I don't know what I could possibly do to thank you, in the future, but I will try my best." I promised. They all smiled pleasantly at me. "I think, though that maybe later Alice should visit one of my friends, Randall. I think he'd be good for you." I smiled at her. "He's very open-minded and has a thing for short girls. It might be hard to find him, he's a nomad." I told her, and her smile widened, and she almost automatically started trying to see him in a vision. She'd be left waiting, because Randall had a knack for blocking any kind of gift. It was his gift, the gift of survival.

"It was hard to find something I could do for you," I said, turning now to Carlisle and Esme.

"You don't need to give us anything," Carlisle said, "We all would have done it for any human."

"Plus," Esme interjected, "We all like Bella."

"None the less, the Ancient Egyptians, the good ones, kept a policy. We pay back all debts, even if they aren't concrete debts written down on paper." I told tham and out of my back pocket I tugged a plane ticket. "I know it isn't much, but I know Esme likes architecture, and Carlisle you're a man of medicine. I've got the location, and directions to a special tomb, that was hidden back in my time. It's for a special people, the couple that I held very close when I was human. The man was a doctor, he was very good. His wife was one of the best architects in Egypt, though her brother had to claim all of the rights, since women weren't that free yet." I handed over the ticket and a few more papers.

"And Rosalie." I turned to her, smiling. "I know there isn't much you want but…Jasper mentioned something special that you wanted." I teased and I didn't pull out anything for this one. I'm sure it would stick in her mind. "I was thinking for your gift, that I could try and give you something that you always wanted. I'm able to age…" I could hear the intake of breath. She had already guessed. Emmett's arm flexed in shock and glee. "So maybe, when I've lived out this life or something happens I can age, and be a baby for you. You'd raise me and I might even call you Mom." I teased her. She jumped in glee, and Emmett and her hugged while she chattered on with plans. I couldn't give her a biological child, but it was the best I could do for her.

"Jasper." I turned to where he stood, leaning against the door to the room, listening. When he smiled at me I didn't know what I could do. "I couldn't think of much for you that I could do, but I managed to think of something." I stood up from sitting on the white chair in the Cullen's living room. "It'll take a long time though, so you'll see a lot of me." I teased, walking closer until I was right before him.

"I think I can handle that." Jasper chuckled wrapping his arm around me and just like the day that Bella had first come to the house I heard a happy sigh from behind us.

"Well, I was thinking that I could just simply love you until I'm burned to death." I told him, sternly, seriously.

"So what you are promising me is forever?" Jasper asked and I smiled.

"Do you like it?"

"Yes." And I almost nailed Emmett in the private parts again when he outright pretended to die when Jasper and I kissed again.

**I can't believe it. It's over. I can't wait for the sequel. AND I've also got a beta now, so let's hope that I don't make as many mistakes. ;D It's a really good person to, because she reviews a lot. **

**Well. This is it for a while…I'm so sad. **

**I don't really have that much to say, except a little detail about New Moon…Let's just say the relationship between Jasper and Belle isn't going to go smoothly…at all! I mean like taking a tumble down Mount Everest and then falling along the Nile river into the deepest crack into earth and then missing the ending to be shot into outer space past Uranus. But they will eventually come back to earth, and land right in the middle of a wedding.**

**WINK, WINK. **

**Haha. I love you guys, thanks for reviewing so much! **

**And I promise that the sequel and stuff will be beta'd.**


	17. The Sequel

Hey….well I forgot to tell everyone that the sequel is up and running. I thought that maybe I should tell you all since I kind of promised that I would do that. I can't wait for all of you to read it if you haven't. I hope you enjoy it!


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